• . .' t -I' - j - •'•0 










. <^° .-^^^^T. 






^'j^m 




o"^ o - . •*•- 



,'4'*'. ytediTz^^ 



V/(5^'- 









THE UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




•LAFAYETTE, WE ARE HERE" 



Marshal JofFre applauding the words of General Pershing at Lafayette's Tomb on the Fourth of July, 1917. 
These simple words travelled instantly around the world and became imperishably famous 



THE UNITED STATES 
IN THE GREAT WAR 

BY 

WILLIS J. ABBOT 



author of 
"the nations at war" 

"PANAMA AND THE CANAl" 

"the story of our navy" 

"the story of our army" 

"aircraft and submarines" 



WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DRAWINGS, IN 
COLOR AND BLACK AND WHITE, AND PHOTOGRAPHS 
TAKEN BY EXPERTS, MANY OF THEM UNDER FIRE 




LESLIE-JUDGE CO. 

PUBLISHERS NEW YORK 

I9I9 









Copyright, igig 

DOUBLEDAY, PaGE & CoMPANY 

Ail rights reserved, including that of 

translation into foreign languages, 

including the Scandinavian 



^R 24 1919 

5CLA5I27S7 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



.itroduction . . vii 

CHAPTER I 

Situation in Europe When tiie United States Entered the War — List of the Warring 
Nations — Our People's Aversion to War — Sympathy for France — Effect of German Atroc- 
ities — The German Submarine Campaign — The Sinking of the Lusitania — The Diplo- 
matic Discussion — The Presidential Election — Germany's Arrogant Defiance — The Declar- 
ation of War I 

CHAPTER H 

Our National Unpreparedness — The Struggle Over Conscription — Forces Opposed 
to the Draft — Scene at the First Drawing of Numbers — Mobilization of the National 
Army — Lack of Supplies — Work of the War Welfare Societies — Life in the Cantonments — 
The Soldiers' Food — Sports and Games — Military Training — Life in the Foreign Camps 21 

CHAPTER HI 

The Lack of Ships — The Interned German Fleet — Efforts to Disable It — The Voyage 
of the Transports — Losses by Attack — Our Naval Ports in France — A Training Camp in 
England — Instruction in Real War — First Days in the Trenches — The First American 
Dead 



45 



CHAPTER IV 



The First Americans to Go — Work of our Ambulance Corps — The Commission for the 
Relief of Belgium — Our Men in the French Foreign Legion — The Lafayette Escadrille — 
Our Fighters in the Air — The Martyrs 67 

CHAPTER V 

Military Operations During the First Year of the Participation of the United States 
in the War — The Fighting on the Western Front — The Tanks — German Atrocities in 
France — The Italian Front — The Disaster on the Isonzo — Venice Imperiled — ^The Meso- 
potamian Campaign — Taking of Jerusalem — Had the Allies Lost the War? 85 

CHAPTER VI 

General Pershing Arrives in Europe — ^A Torpedo Attack — Training Soldiers in 
France — Early Fighting — Battle of Seicheprey — Hovy an Attack is Planned — Capture of 
Cantigny — Bouresches, Vaux, and Chateau-Thierry — The Marines at Belleau Wood . . log 

CHAPTER VII 

The Allies Take the OfFensive^Clearing the Soissons-Rheims Salient — Americans 
at Chateau-Thierry — Beginning of the Great German Retreat — Who Won the War? — 
Services of Each Nation — British Victories in Picardy — The Fallacy (?) of Devastation 133 



■ifci 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER VIII 

The Russian Revolution — Cause of the Revolt — German Intrigue Involved — The 
Shifting Control of Russian Affairs — Kerensky, Lenine, and Trotzky — Social Conditions 
in Russia — Rise of the Czecho-Slovaks — The Allies' Siberian Expedition — The Murman 
Peninsula — Position of the United States Government — The Outlook 155 

CHAPTER IX 

Where Teutonic Dissolution Began — The War in the South East — Bulgaria Sur- 
renders — The Downfall of Turkey — British Victories in Palestine — Italy Regains Her 
War Strength — Fighting on the Piave — The Smash-up of Austria-Hungary — Aspirations 
of Subject Peoples — Remaking the Map of Europe — Some of the More Perplexing Problems 179 

CHAPTER X 

The St. Mihiel Salient — The First Independent American Operation on a Large Scale 
— Character of the Fighting — The Great Pincers — In the Forest of the Argonne — The Lost 
Battalion — Pressing on the Border Line of Germany — Distress of the Enemy — The Arm- 
istice — Flight of the Kaiser — Revolution in Germany 209 

CHAPTER XI 

The Navy in the War — Its Rapid Growth — The Great Training Camps — The De- 
stroyers—Losses of Fighting Ships— The Aviation Corps— The Fleet in the North Sea — 
The Fighting Marines — Surrender of the German Fleet 239 

CHAPTER XII 

The Armistice — The Extent of the German Defeat — Terms of Surrender — Were the 
Allies Too Lenient? — The Advance Into Germany — Our Troops at Coblenz and Treves — 
Temper of the German People— The Measure of the Kaiser's Crime — The Peace Confer- 
ence — President Wilson and the League of Nations — Losses of the World in Men and 
Money— Chronology 209 



INTRODUCTION 

THIS account of the participation of the United States in the Great World War 
is given to the pubhc at the moment when representatives of all the nations are 
gathered in the historic halls of Versailles to formulate a treaty of peace which 
shall, so far as human foresight will permit, prevent in future any recurrence of the 
calamity which overwhelmed Christendom in the last four years. 

The monumental palace built by kings for their own glory, and to house their 
obsequious courts, is to serve as the manger wherein to lay the babe of a worldwide 
democracy. 

The great hall, which less than half a century ago resounded with the acclaims of 
those who, on the ruins of France, established the German Empire and committed its 
fortunes to the Imperial house of Hohenzollern, will now witness the disintegration 
of that empire, while the head of the fallen house lies in exile in a foreign country — a 
suppliant for the protection of a nation which only a few months ago he planned to 
rob. 

In 1871 the halls of Versailles witnessed the apotheosis of the sword. To-day 
they behold the endeavors of those who have won by the sword to establish for the 
future a wiser, more humane, more Christian method of settling disputes among 
nations. 

The United States was late in its entrance upon the war, but first of all the nations 
outside of France, to send its delegates to the peace conference. In these correlated 
facts there is a significance readily discernible by those who will stop to give them due 
consideration. 

Ours has never been a military nation. We have had our wars — five of them in 
our 130 years of national existence. But they have been unsought wars, forced upon 
us by conditions which we patiently strove to correct before taking up the sword. The 
measure of our aversion to war may fitly be judged by the complete unpreparedness 
for war which has attended our every entrance upon hostilities — and this last one 
more than any. 

The United States gave formal notice of its entrance upon the prodigious struggle 
just ended after it had raged for two years and six months. Yet with the conflagra- 
tion thus furiously roaring in our full view, and its sparks falling fast upon our territory 
to our own hurt, we made no preparation to join those who were doing their best to 
put it out. When belatedly convinced that, unless subdued, the flames of war would 
carry us down with the rest in one universal disaster, we had to begin preparations 
to take part in the fight from the very bottom. If the period of our participation in 
actual conflict was but brief, and indeed it scarcely exceeded six months, it was the 
fierce rush to fit ourselves to fight which showed most the temper, of which the nation 
was made, and most impressed the enemy with the irresistible character of this last 
new and terrible force that he had aroused. 

In the body of this book I have discussed briefly the futile question as to what 
nation won the war, and have shown that to each of the several belligerents on the 
side of the Entente is due so much of the credit that exclusive glory can be the meed of 
none. 

As these words are being written the question before the world has less to do with 
the history of the fighting that is past, than with the question of the form of peace 
which is very present. If the United States was late upon the battlefield her envoys 
were early at the peace conference. By the persgnal presence there of the President 
of the United States ours was made a delegation that need yield nothing in point of 



INTRODUCTION 

dignity to that of any other nation. The position they held of complete detachment 
from any selfish national interest or amhition justified the anticipation that they 
would stand foremost as the representatives of peace with justice, a peace which 
should be permanent and mark the end of war. To this the President of the United 
States, alike as chief executive of the nation and in his capacity as a member of the 
Peace Conference, is committed. Back of him, so far as may be judged from the 
expressions of the newspapers of the country, the people stand as a unit in the convic- 
tion that such a peace can only be successfully established and permanently maintained 
by means of a League of Nations. The suggestion of such a league I think may fairly 
be said to have originated in the United States. If its actual creation shall be due 
to our influence in the Versailles Conference whatever there may be of regret for the 
tardiness of our appearance in the war may well be assuaged by the reflection that 
this great boon to humanity was due to American endeavors. 

It is as yet too early to determine the extent to which the war waged for the pro- 
tection of democracy may extend the system of democracy throughout the world. 
At this moment Russia is in complete anarchy, and Germany apparently on the verge 
of civil war. The duties of the Peace Conference are made mexpressibly more difiicult 
by the fact that a great part of the territory, and of the people with whom it has to 
deal, is now without responsible government, a prey to disorder and to revolution. 
No great war ever ended without a prolonged period of precisely such unrest and 
turmoil. But we may well believe that out of this present chaos will be evolved a 
wider measure of democracy, a more just reorganization of society in the countries 
aff^ected, and a peace that shall be enduring because it will be guaranteed by a League 
of Nations systematically organized, and directed by a code which shall have been 
formulated by the best representatives of democratic principles to-day. 

The author desires to express his obligation to the corps of brilliant and devoted 
journalists who served as war correspondents during the progress of the struggle now 
ended. While the fighters made history, these writers recorded it. In many instances 
their letters from the front, written under the most trying circumstances, in water- 
logged trenches, dark and dismal dugouts, on the seat of a speeding lorry, or in some 
shell-torn hut with the guns roaring about them, had all the vivacity and spirit of 
well wrought literary productions. The work of such men as Philip Gibbs, Percival 
Gibbons, Frederick Palmer and Edwin L. James gave to readers of English throughout 
the world so vivid, picturesque and graphic an idea of the world conflict day by day 
that there is left to the historian little except the task of harmonizing conflicting reports 
and describing the broader strategy of the war of which the correspondent cannot be 
informed. At the beginning of the war it was the policy of the military authorities 
of ail nations to bar the correspondents from the front and to circumscribe rigidly 
their freedom of expression. As the war progressed this policy was gradually aban- 
doned. It is perhaps the best testimonial to the position which the capable and 
earnest correspondent bears in relation to the operations of the army to which he is 
accredited that these restrictions should have been relaxed, and the end of the 
war should have found the correspondents given every facility for observing and 
recording its progress. 

Willis J. Abbot. 
Jan. lo, 1919. 



THE UNITED STATES 
IN THE GREAT WAR 




CHAPTER I 

SITUATION IN EUROPE WHEN THE UNITED STATES ENTERED THE WAR — LIST 

OF THE WARRING NATIONS OUR PEOPLe's AVERSION TO WAR SYMPATHY 

FOR FRANCE— EFFECT OF GERMAN ATROCITIES THE GERMAN SUBMARINE 

CAMPAIGN THE SINKING OF THE "lUSITANIa" THE DIPLOMATIC DISCUSSION 

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION GERMANY'S ARROGANT DEFIANCE THE 

DECLARATION OF WAR 



THE United States entered upon 
the Great War in Europe when, 
on the 6th of April, 1917, President 
Woodrow Wilson signed the war 
resolutions which had been adopted by the 
House of Representatives that morning, and 
by the Senate two days earlier. 

All Europe, and part of Asia and Africa 
as well, was at that moment in the grip of 
war. The German armies seemed to be 
securely established in France and Belgium. 
Russia was in the throes of revolution, and 
had ceased to be a factor in the war activities 
of the Allies. What might come of the over- 
throw of her government, and the attempt 
to erect upon its ruins a new edifice of democ- 
racy it was too early to tell. It was not, 
however, too early to recognize the fact that 
as an aid to the Allies Russia could no longer 
be counted upon. At various points along 
her battle line in the east her soldiers were 
fraternizing with the Germans and Austrians 
in their front. The revolutionary powers, 
sedulously encouraged by Germany, were 
breaking down military discipline in the 
army so that soldiers no longer obeyed or 
even saluted their officers. The great divi- 
sions at the front were melting away, as the 



soldiers were told by foreign intriguers that 
those who hastened home would be given 
tracts of land in the distribution of the prop- 
erty of the privileged classes which the 
revolutionary government had begun. Even 
at the moment it was clear that Russia could 
no longer be relied upon to keep the Central 
Powers busy along the eastern battle-front, 
and, as the months rolled by, the extent of the 
Russian defection, and the degree to which 
the intrigue of Germany with the revolution- 
ary leaders had fomented it, convinced mili- 
tary men that the Allies must fight out their 
fight without hope of further assistance from 
that enormous state now fallen for the time 
into the grip of anarchy. 

As a result of the Russian withdrawal 
the armies of both Germany and Austria 
along the eastern front were freed from any 
apprehension of the armies of the Czar, 
and were able to concentrate their assaults, 
upon those more western forces still actively 
in the field. The effect of this was shown 
most disastrously in the check which the 
Austrians were able to put to the triumphant 
progress of the Italian forces which had 
fought their way gallantly into Austrian 
territory, through the difficult passes of the 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




© Harris ^.- Ewing 

Count Johann H von BernstorfF, the former German Ambas- 



Dolomite and Julian Alps, had taken Goiitzia 
and menaced the interior of Austria, and 
even Germany, through the Austrian back 
door. Freed from further apprehension of 
Russia Germany was able to send troops to 
Austria's aid, and held the Italians in check, 
until by the devious devices of intrigue and 
trickery their defensive power was under- 
mined and a serious defeat threw their armies 
back into their own territory for a prolonged 
defensive. 

In the region of the Balkans the moment 
of the entrance of the United States showed 
nothing encouraging to the Allied cause. 
Greece had not yet finally thrown off the 
domination of her pro-German King Con- 
stantine and his army, lurking in the rear, 
had made impotent the joint French and 
British army at Saloniki, so that the Germans 
and Austrians had been able to sweep down 
upon Serbia and overwhelm that people in 
an invasion which for ferocity and barbarity 
has perhaps never been paralleled in the 
history of war. Turkey, meantime, had every 
reason to be exultant. She had beaten 
back the British from the Dardanelles, 



though later revelations show that had the 
invaders made but one more effort they 
must have succeeded. Farther to the south, 
in Mesopotamia, the forces of General Maude 
had just taken Bagdad thus wiping out to 
some extent the memory of the loss of the 
British force under General Townshend at 
Kut-el-Amara. But for the moment the 
British operations in this part of Asia Minor 
seemed none too promising, for the revolution 
in Russia had put an abrupt end to the prog- 
ress of the Russian armies about Lake Van, 
which prior to that outbreak had been press- 
ing gallantly forward and giving every indi- 
cation of ability to beat back the Turks and 
effect a juncture with the British forces. 

Returning to the western front we find that 
the German grip upon France and Belgium 
appeared unshaken, though for the moment 
the German armies under Hindenburg were 
engaged in a retreat, undertaken for strategic 
purposes. Yet this retreat was not wholly 
voluntary, for almost at the moment when 
the American congress was debating war 
the British had struck the foe savagely near 
Arras and had driven hini back with heavy 




© Harris & Ewing 

Captain Von Papen, Germany's Military Attache in this 
country who characterized us in a letter as "Idiotic Yankees" 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



losses. Verdun was successfully continuing 
the gallant defense by which for more than 
two years it had upheld the French watch- 
word, "They shall not pass," while Paris 
in a new security, destined to be rudely 
shocked nearly a year later, had settled down 
to the conviction that the advance of the foe 
had been permanently checked far from her 
city gates.* 

Such, then, roughly outlined, was the 
situation of the principal belligerents in the 
main theatre of war when the United States, 
after prolonged hesitation, determined to 
enter the conflict on the side of the Entente 
Allies. 

There were at the moment, after the United 
States declared war upon the Central Powers, 
engaged in the war upon Germany and her 
Allies twelve nations, namely: Great Britain, 
France, Russia, Belgmm, Serbia, Japan, 
Italy, Montenegro, San Marino, Portugal, 
Rumania, and the United States. Their 
population exceeded 977,260,000 people. 

Against these were marshalled the Central 
Powers, namely: Austria, Germany, Tur- 
key, and Bulgaria. The forces opposed to 
the Entente Allies numbered at the moment 
of the entrance of the United States 
156,572,000. But the disparity in numbers 
was more apparent than real. It has already 
been explained that the Russian revolution 
eliminated that nation from the list of effec- 
tive belligerents. Serbia and Rumania had 
been put out of action by overwhelming 
defeat. Japan had never taken the slightest 
part in the fighting in western Europe where 
the war was to be decided, and even her naval 
services in the Pacific were of little value 
in view of the dominant strength of the 
British navy. Portugal contributed little 
to the course of the fighting and naturally 
such pigmy nations as Montenegro and 
San Marino were without military signifi- 
cance. And the predominance of British 
population is due to the incorporation in it of 
the teeming millions of India, and of British 
colonies in Asia and Africa whose part in the 
war bore no just proportion to the numbers of 
their inhabitants. It is fair to say that prior 
to the entrance of the United States the 
Entente Powers were outnumbered in actual 
fighting population, as they were almost in- 

*A full description and history of the progress of the war 
which had reached this stage at the time of the entrance upon 
it of the United States will be found in the author's earlier 
volume "The Nations at War." 




en, 

Captain Karl Boy-Ed, the former German Naval Attache 

variably outnumbered on every field of battle. 
The latter condition, however, was due more to 
the fact that the Germans had the advantage 
of a central position, and short interior lines, 
than to the disparity in total man-power 
between the two groups of belligerents. 

After the entrance of the United States 
upon the war many other nations followed 
her into the conflict. Among them were 
Cuba, Panama, Greece, Siam, China, Brazil, 
and Peru. None of these contributed es- 
pecially to the strength of the Allies unless 
it were Greece. Brazil, through the activity 
of her navy, was of some assistance in pa- 
trolling the seas. 

Immediately upon the first outbreak in 
Europe President Wilson issued his proclama- 
tion of neutrality, and called upon the people 
of the United States to observe neutrality 
"in thought and deed." That was a task 
difficult of fulfilment. Indeed as the months 
wore on it became impossible. While it was 
quite true that among our people was a great 
body of German-Americans, as those either 
of German birth or immediate German line- 
age were called, the dominant intellectual 
forces in the nation were almost from the 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 
"Barred Zones" and "Safety Lanes" Outlined in Germany's Note. 




very outset favorably inclined to the Allies. 
They openly declared their sj^mpathy, and, 
to a very great degree, advocated the entrance 
upon the war on the Allied side. 

Beyond doubt it was the large admixture 
of English lineage and blood among our 
people which caused this attitude on the 
part of a section of the populace, numerically 
small but exerting an influence beyond its 
numbers. In the roster of those who urged 
incessantly the taking up of arms by the 
United States English names not only pre- 
dominate — they almost monopolize the list. 
But in addition to the distinctly pro-British 
sentiment thus manifested there was a very 



wide-spread feeling of earnest sympath; 
for France. Republics may, as the maxir 
has it, be ungrateful, but the sentiment o 
affection and gratitude to France springin. 
from the aid she extended to us in our Revo 
lutionary War is wide-spread among th 
American people, despite the large admixtur 
among them in these latter days of foreigi 
elements ignorant of our earlier history 
Two incidents of the war fitly indicated th 
extent of this policy among our people. 

One of the many gallant and culture( 
American boys who, even before their owi 
nation entered the war, joined the FrencJ 
army as aviators and laid down their live 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




German destrojerb and submarine chasers lymg m a foreign harbor 



in that service, was Kiffen Rockwell. "I 
pay my part for Lafayette and Rocham- 
beau" he answered proudly when someone 
asked him on the flying field in France what 
he was doing in a French uniform when his 
country clung to cold neutrality: 

And later when the flood of American 
soldiers began pouring into France General 
John J. Pershing, Commander of the Amer- 
ican Expeditionary Force, was taken to 
visit the tomb of Lafayette. Advancing 
he laid a wreath upon the sarcophagus with 
the brief and simple words which the whole 
world found eloquent, 

"Lafayette, zve are here .'" 

The heart of France, sorely burdened, 
though not crushed, under the heavy hand 
of the foe, revived at these words of promise, 
and Christendom rejoiced that opportunity 
had been given to a soldier of the United 
States to speak them. 

This feeling of loyalty to the England 
whence our forefathers had come, and to 
the France which had helped us to win our 
independence, were dominant forces in bring- 
ing the United States into the war. That 



France had helped us against England did 
not in the least embarrass those who fell 
that now was the time when we should fight 
shoulder to shoulder against a common foe 
For that common foe was Germany, and 
history showed that it was a German kin§ 
on England's throne, an alien monarcf 
scarce able to speak the English tongue, whc 
forced our forefathers into revolt and strovt 
to crush English liberty in the Englisli 
colonies. The English people, and theii 
most representative figures in parliament, 
were with the American colonists in theii 
struggle for liberty — and the wisest and 
most philosophic of Englishmen to-day admit 
that the fight which won American hbertj 
saved English liberty as well. 

The effect of such considerations upon 
American public sentiment favoring wai 
upon Germany was enormously enhanced 
by the news of the frightful atrocities com- 
mitted by the Germans in their march through 
Belgium. These atrocities, unparalleled ir 
the records of modern warfare — unless it 
be by the barbarities perpetrated by the 
Germans themselves in the march to Pekin, 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



t the time of the Boxer rebelHon in China — 

ocked the civihzed world. The callous 

pvernment of the Kaiser, seemingly in- 

apable of comprehending the fact that the 

ayoneting of babes, the ravishing and mu- 

ilation of women, and the wholesale slaugh- 

er of inoffensive civiHans could arouse an 

ntagonism throughout the world that might 

e fatal to Germany, at first did not take 

he trouble to deny commission of the 

rimes. Later it strove to excuse them as the 

ecessary accompaniments of a state of war.* 

To the indignation which the atrocities 

ommitted by 

jhe German 

I r m y had 

iroused in the 

[iVmerican mind 

|yas added the 

wrath awaken- 

Sd by the course 
f the German 
u b m a r i n e 
ampaign. In 
he end this 
ssault upon 
lur rights on 
he high seas 
7as made by 
the President 
lie reason for 
declaring war 
ikpon Germany. 
iFechnically, it 
ivas perhaps 
Ihe determin- 

Eig cause, but 
o observer 
f the slow 
Awakening of 
thewar spirit in 
the United 
States can 
lioubt that re- 
sentment f o r 
':he unspeak- 
able barbarities 
of Germany in 
the war, and 
determination 
that German 



military autocracy should not overwhelm the 
democracies of England and France had quite 
as much to do with it as had the German 
assault upon our commerce. 

Indeed it was rather the manner of the 
German submarine campaign than the fact 
that it was prosecuted that stung the Amer- 
ican people into war. It is perfectly con- 
ceivable that the Germans might have so 
used their U-boats as to have accomplished 
nearly as much as they did toward destroying 
British commerce, shutting off supplies of 
munitions, and bringing England to the verge 



: *For a more com- 
prehensive account 
pf German atrocities 
see "The Nations at 
War," p. ig. 




A typical American-built submarine chaser. These small craft were turned out by the thousands 
and were ever ready to make it hot for any enemy submarine which visited our waters. Several such 
visitors never returned to their bases. 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



of starvation, without spurring America to 
the fightmg point. 

But the same criminal fatuity which pre- 
vented their resting content with having 
stolen Belgium without inflicting unspeakable 
tortures upon its people, made it impossible 
for the Germans to prosecute their submarine 
warfare \n accordance with the humane dic- 
tates of the law of nations. 



was destined to become one of our chielJ 
causes of complaint against the Kaiser's 
government. Had Germany, on her part, 
carefully observed the dictates of the law 
of the nations on the sea, while calmly and 
steadily pointing out the infractions of it, 
by Great Britain, 1917 might have told ^< 
different story. I 

Instead of this, maddened by the spectaclet 




© Underwood & Underwood 

Life savers at Whitby hauling in the litehoat which made several \ain attempts to reach the hospital ship Rohilla. sunk off the 

east coast of England 



There was beyond doubt a certain sym- 
pathy for Germany at sea among the Amer- 
ican people. To their sporting spirit the 
hopeless inferiority of the German navy to 
that of Great Britain gave to the effort 
to accomplish something by means of the 
pigmy undersea boats an element of peculiar 
gallantry. Moreover, the desire of the British 
to suppress trade with Germany at every 
point led that nation, with its great naval 
supremacy, to establish rules of blockade 
that were not in precise compliance with the 
hitherto accepted laws of nations, and which 
at times caused loss to American citizens 
using the high seas in thorough accord with 
international law. 

Such resentment against Great Britain 
as was aroused by these methods in the 
United States was artfully stimulated and 
extended by that German propaganda which 



of enormous neutral fleets bringing to her 
enemies cannon, shells, high-explosives, arms, 
uniforms, and all imaginable munitions of 
war, she cast off all restraint and sent out 
her submarines to prey on the ships not of 
her foes alone, but of the neutral nations, 
among which the United States was the 
greatest. 

And more than this. While Great Britain 
had invaded the property rights of our 
people, causing them some loss and great 
inconvenience, the submarine campaigns of 
Germany were directed against life as well 
as property, and before the United States 
sprang to war more than 220 of her people 
had been sacrificed to the mad savagery of 
the submarines. 

The proclamation by the German Govern- 
ment of its creation of a "war zone," com- 
prehending all the waters immediately sur- 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



rounding the British Isles and her announced 
intention of destroying all enemy vessels 
found within that zone, "without its always 
being possible to warn the crew or passengers 
of their danger," first forced upon our Govern- 
ment recognition of the gravity of the Ger- 
man menace to the rights of neutrals on the 
high seas. 

The United States instantly protested. 



submarine, the Germans urged, were forced 
to come to the surface, and dispatch a boat to 
examine the papers of a suspected craft be- 
fore destroying her, it was always possible 
that naval aid summoned by wireless by the 
victim would destroy the submarine itself. 
As for putting the passengers and crew in 
safety that, according to the humane view 
of the Boches, was amply accomplished by 




German submarines lying at their docks at Wilhelmshaven 



It denounced the whole theory of a "war 
zone." It restated the principle of inter- 
national law that a suspected vessel shall 
not be destroyed until she has been visited 
and her belligerent character, or the contra- 
band quality of her cargo established by due 
examination. Even then she may not be 
sunk until her passengers and crew have 
been placed in safety. 

The response of the German Government, 
adhered to until the collapse of that govern- 
ment as the result of its utter defeat in the 
war, was that all established principles of 
international law should yield to the peculiar 
qualities and needs of the submarine boat. 
These boats, it pointed out, were small, 
weak both structurally and defensively, 
able to perform their functions only when 
unseen, or at least when exposed to view 
for only the briefest possible time. If a 



crowding them into open boats, hundreds of 
miles from shore in the bleakest and stormiest 
gales of midwinter. 

While diplomatic discussion of these sharply 
divergent views was in progress, Germany 
gave effect to her programme by sinking 
vessels, both belligerent and neutral, on 
which American citizens lost their lives. 
But the crowning and most atrocious act of 
aggression was the destruction by submarine 
torpedo, and without warning of the British 
passenger liner Lusitania, with the loss of 
1,198 lives of whom 114 were Americans. 

The storm of wrath aroused in the United 
States by this crime was so great that only 
the seemingly indomitable determination of 
the Administration to keep the peace averted 
the immediate entrance of the nation upon 
the war. The people had not yet settled 
down to the recognition of the fact that war 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



cliant:;es all conditions. Those who had 
business in Europe, and manj' of those who 
sought pleasure there, had no idea of relin- 
quishing their right to travel thither, on 
unarmed vessels, in safety- over the sea which 
belonged quite as much to the mdividual 
American as to the Kaiser himself. 

Perhaps the German Government was 
itself appalled by the storm its crime aroused. 
Although it was announced that the subma- 
rine commander who had sunk the Lvsitania 
had been decorated, his identity was sedu- 
lously concealed and was not known to the 
world when the war ended. Bronze medals — 
which were struck off in Germany to com- 
memorate the exploit and prepared as was 
afterward learned several days before the 
actual smkmg — were hurriedly suppressed. 
Though the school children of several German 
cities were given a holiday when the news of 
the great victory over unarmed men, women, 
and children was received, this fact was 
afterward stoutly and falsely denied by 
German authorities. The German ambassa- 
dor at Washington, Count Von Bernstoi-ff, 
tried to palliate the offense by pointing out 
that before the sailing of the ship he had 
caused advertisements to be published warn- 
ing Americans who had taken passage that 
they would sail at their own peril. 

But this rather heightened than allayed 
the popular wrath. The people declared 
that a murder was made none the less crim- 
inal by the announcement in advance that 
it was to be committed in cold blood. More- 
over, public opinion bitterly criticised the 
President for not having made the appearance 
of these advertisements the occasion for 
sending a battleship to convoy the Lusitania, 
and warning Germany that an attack upon 



her would be an act of war against the 
United States. 

While a large part of the people was de- 
manding war the President turned to diplo- 
macy for redress. It may be noted here 
that never did his diplomatic endeavors 
succeed, nor ever was there coaxed out of 
Germany so much as an official repudiation 
of the act of the man who sank the ship. 
After the lapse of years, and the abundant 
revenge which our forces have taken for this 
atrocity, it seems curious to reflect that in 
his note of protest President Wilson ascribed 
the crime to a misapprehension of orders on 
the part of the captain of the submarine. 
But the concluding paragraph of the note 
put strength and encouragement into the 
hearts of those Americans who, even at that 
early day, recognized the duty resting upon 
our nation to cleanse the blot of Hohen- 
zollernism from the face of Europe. The 
President's note concluded: 

The Imperial German Government will not expect 
the Government of the United States to omit any word 
or act necessary to the performance of its sacred duty 
of maintaining the rights of the United States and its 
citizens and of safe-guarding their free exercise and 
enjoyment. 

That was written May 13, 1915. Though 
the Imperial German Government increased, 
rather than lessened, the frequency of its 
attacks upon the rights of American citizens, 
it lacked but one month of being two years 
before the United States acted upon "its 
sacred duty" of maintaining those rights. 

Germany was less lethargic. Her work 
of piratical assaults upon neutrals on the 
high seas proceeded apace, as though she 




The cargo submarine Deulsclilcuid, the first undrrsea boat to. cross the ocean, saihng up the Weser River on her return to 

Bremen, her home port 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




© LnJerwood t. L n.l 

The American steamer Gulfliglil settling by the head after she had been torpedoed 



;lt assured that no response more vigorous 
han a diplomatic note would proceed from 
he United States. On the 9th of August 
he British liner, Arabic, was torpedoed 
without warning. No lives were lost, but 
6 Americans were exposed to the hardships 
f a night in open boats. A note of protest 
rought from the Huns the grudging assur- 
nce that "liners will not be sunk by sub- 
larines without warning, and without assur- 
ig the safety of non-combatants, provided 
hat the liners do not try to escape or to offer 
isistance." This was unsatisfactory, as it 
ffered no protection to American sailors 
n freight vessels, and assumed that placing 
assengers in open boats on a tempestuous 
sa was assuring their safety. Even at 
hat, it expressed too great a measure of 
umanity for the Germans to maintain, and 
1 less than two weeks the liner Hesperimi 
rzs torpedoed without warning. 

The people of this nation were getting very 
^eary of the German policy of promising 
form while continuing its offensive course, 
ind about this time there began to appear 
series of revelations concerning plots against 
ur good order and interests by German 
missaries — not unconnected with the diplo- 
latic service — that added to the popular 



discontent. It was discovered that incen- 
diary fires in ammunition plants and strikes 
in works of the same character were being 
fomented by German agents. Our State 
Department was being deceived with forged 
passports — a work in which attaches of the 
German Embassy, Captain Boy-Ed and 
Captain Von Papen, took an active part. 
The existence of a subsidized German propa- 
ganda was demonstrated. Papers emanating 
from Dr. Dumba, the Austrian Ambassador, 
fell into the hands of the State Department, 
showing that functionary to be busily en- 
gaged in encouraging strikes in such great 
steel works as those at Bethlehem. As a 
result he was. summarily sent home. An 
intercepted letter from Captain Von Papen 
disclosed that warrior of intrigue as advising 
"these idiotic Yankees to hold their tongues." 
It was daily made more clear that the em- 
bassy which Germany maintained here in a 
nominal spirit of friendliness was in fact 
a nest of conspiracy against our industries 
and our internal peace, and that the spirit 
which animated its officials, from Ambassador 
Von BernstorfF down, was one of cynical con- 
tempt for the United States and resentment 
for the part she was playing in the war. 
After relations were broken off" it was dis- 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




The otScers of the Dutch steamer Ai 



(1 bringing, under threat of destruction, their ship's papers to the commander 
of this German submarine 



covered that German diplomacy was actually 
trying to embroil us in war with Mexico 
and Japan. 

Much of the German intrigue was directed 
against the enormous business in munitions 
of war for the Allies which had sprung up 
in the United States. Although German 
public men privately admitted the entire 
legality of this trade they bitterly denounced 
it in public as a gross violation of neutrality. 
It is a fact, unpleasant to consider in the 
light of later events, that at this period the 
manufacturers of the United States would 
quite as readily have made munitions for 
Germany as for England and France. The 
only difficulty was that Germany had no 
means of getting the finished product to her 
armies. So being unable to profit herself 
by the trade she denounced it bitterly as 
unneutral and barbarous. American busi- 
ness men were depicted as turning the wounds 
and blood of German soldiers into tainted 
money, and every effort was made to stir up 
German-Americans to open and to stealthy 
attacks on the business. Congress was be- 



seeched to lay an embargo on the export of 
arms, and when that expedient failed, the 
coarser devices of blowing up the plants and 
fomenting strikes were applied. 

In its resentment over German atrocities 
committed upon the people in conquered 
nations of Europe, and in wrath because of 
German aggressions upon our own rights 
and liberties, the American people were far 
in advance of the American Government. 
Yet even among them the war spirit lagged. 
It is one of the most curious records of politics 
that the presidential campaign of 1916 was 
won by the democrats with the slogan "He 
kept us out of war." 

The reasonable implication was that "he," 
President Wilson, would continue to keep 
us out of war. Yet it must have been appar- 
ent to the members of the administration, 
fighting the political battle for their own 
retention in office, that the continued absten- 
tion of the United States from sharing in the 
conflict would be impossible. That fact 
was apparent to careful unofficial observers. 
How much more so must it have been evi- 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



13 



dent to those in the government possessing 
precise knowledge of all the diplomatic 
correspondence between the countries, and 
all the reports of the officials stationed in 
belligerent lands? 

Everywhere throughout the United States 
pacifist societies sprung up, usually sus- 
piciously well supplied v/ith funds from 
unascertainable sources, and not infrequently 
provided with executive officers with sug- 
gestively German names. The German lan- 
guage press, which was moribund at the 
beginning of the war, took on a new pros- 
perity, and in the majority of instances 
was strenuously pro-German in all issues 
which involved a clash between the United 



States and the government of the Kaiser. 
The undoubted evidences of overwhelming 
pacifist sentiment in the United States, and 
the apparent indications — illusory as it later 
proved — of widespread disloyalty among 
German-Americans seemingly encouraged the 
German Government to renewed aggressions. 
Long afterward, when relations between the 
two governments had almost reached the 
snapping point, the Kaiser's Minister of 
Foreign Affairs truculently reminded Am- 
bassador Gerard that there were 500,000 
German Reservists in the United States. 

"And we have 500,001 lamp-posts for 
their accommodation, Your Excellency," 
was the ambassador's apt and instant retort. 




A German U-boat being sent where she will Uu 



no more harm, liy the lime thi: 
in the German navy 



ccurred submarining was becoming unpopular 



14 



UNITED STATES TN THE GREAT WAR 



1 I 



\ \ 








An American vessel at the moment she was hit by a torpedo fired by an enemy submarine. She did not sink, however, and 

she subsequently had her revenge 

Meanwhile, Germany proceeded steadily 
with her submarine campaign of "ruthless- 
ness." The sinking of the Lusitania had 
never been disavowed. No adequate promise 
to adhere to the principles upheld by all 
civilized nations had yet been made by Ger- 
many, and even the grudging agreement 
not to sink without warning regular liners 
was frequently violated — notably by the 
sinking of the Dutch liners Tubantia and 
Palembang. In March, 1916, the Channel 
steamer Siissexvi2iS torpedoed and sunk with 
great loss of life, many American citizens 
being among the victims. Germany v/as 
still evasive, sometimes arrogant. But the 
Siissex incident served to bring matters 
sharply to an issue, for on April 19th, in a 
message to Congress, President V/ilson de- 
clared that 



Unless the Imperial German Government should 
now immediately declare and effect an abandonment 
of its present methods of warfare against passenger 
and freight vessels, the Government can have no choice 
but to sever diplomatic relations with the Government 
of the German Empire altogether. 

This was verjr much in the nature of an 
ultimatum. True, to sever diplomatic re- 
lations is not tantamount to a declaration of 
war, but in troublesome times it is almost 
invariably followed by such a declaration. 



The German Government evidently recog- 
nized the gravity of the situation for it 
responded with the declaration that the 
German navy would at once 

receive the following orders for submarine warfare 
in accordance with the general principle of visit, search 
and destruction of merchant vessels recognized by 
international law: Such vessels, both within and 
without the area declared as a naval war-zone, shall 
not be sunk without warning, and without saving 
human life, unless the ship attempt to escape and offer 
resistance. 

But in connection with this belated agree- 
ment to recognize the rules of civilized na- 
tions the Germans advanced the proposition 
that in return for it the President should 
endeavor to lead the British to mitigate in 
some way the strictness of her blockade. 
The point was clearly foreign to the matter 
at issue. Because Germany was at last 
willing to obey international law was no 
reason why the United States should attempt 
to coerce Great Britain on any point. This 
the President pointed out in his response 
to Germany, but it was made evident nearly 
a year later, when Germany utterly and 
flagrantly repudiated her promise, why the 
conditional clause had been so shrewdly 
attached to it. 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



IS 



Looking back on the months immediately of British race alone, had been done to death 

preceding the declaration of war, with the by the German submarines, 

mind full of the recent evidence of what So persistent was the violation of German 

American participation in the struggle has promises to the United States, so flagrant 

meant to Germany, one cannot but feel that the defiance of those principles of inter- 

the character of the democratic presidential national law upon which the President had 



campaign, and its 
result, must have 
completely de- 
ceived the Ger- 
manGovernment. 
Foritwitnessed 
the triumphant 
election of a can- 
didate whose own 
utterances had 
always been paci- 
fist in tone, who 
had refused to 
take seriously the 
appeals of a great 
part of the nation 
for at least 
adequate prepara- 
tion for possible 
war, and who 
had been urged 
for reelection by 
his closest sup- 
porters on the 



a LINE 

■Screw eteamsWpB 

to GLASGOW 

May 1, Noon 

\,May7,Sp.m. 

.Iverpool. 



, All-the-Way 
r. by-Watef 



ADVURTIBEMENT. 



; UNE 

ES A MARSEILLES 

LlHboD & Mai-BellleB 

Roma Auk. 3 

A... 17 Slate Bt-. N. T. 



VLIANO 

11 DAYS. 

* N ^' 



ilea, jse 



ulse $a< 



NOTICE! 

TRAVELLERS intending to 
embark on the Atlantic voyage 
are renainded that a state of 
war exists between Germany 

id her allies and Great Britain 
and her allies; that the zone of 
war includes the waters adja- 
cent to the British Isles; that, 
in accordance with formal no- 
tice given by the Imperial Ger- 
man Government, vessels fly- 
ing the flag of Great Britain, or 
of any of her allies, are liable to 
destruction in those waters and 
that travellers sailing in the war 
zone on ships of Great Britain 
or her allies do so at their own 
risk. 

IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY 

WABHINOirON. D. C. APRIL, 22. 1915. 



KSW ENOLANU-Ui»u< 

heaton'h; 

Stockbridge, Massai 

in the Bcrkshira H 

WILL OPEN JUNE 



/ Marblehead, Ma 

THE ROCK-M' 

Hotel de Luxe Opens 

\ Faces all the Yacl 
BOOKLKTB G. H. BRA 



BAMKBTJPTOY NOTICES. 



EARLY G0» 

AT 

STOCKBRIDGE, f 

RED LION I 

NOW OPEN. 



Mil G e, 



OPENNMJLJ^ggli 



The warning published as an advertisement in the press of America 
by the German Embassy just before the Lusitania sailed 



insisted that men 
began to think 
that Germany 
actually wished to 
draw us into the 
conflict. Her 
public men ex- 
pressed entire 
contempt for our 
military and 
naval strength, 
and even some of 
our own people, 
regarding the 
3 ,ooo miles of 
ocean that sepa- 
rated us from 
Europe, thought 
the conflict would 
be not unlike the 
duel which Abra- 
ham Lincoln sug- 
gested should 
be fought with 



pacifist theory expressed by the ceaseless axes at a distance of sixty paces. 



repetition of the phrase: "He kept us out of 
war." 

Could any foreign government, viewing 
these conditions, and ignorant of the Re- 
publican factional fight which did in fact 
accomplish Mr. Wilson's election, construe 
the result other than as a positive declaration 
of the American people against entrance upon 
the war.? 

Germany unquestionably so construed it. 
The year 1917 opened with a vigorous re- 
newal of the submarine warfare upon- vessels 
of every class and nationality. In a month 
96 vessels, many of them neutral, had been 
sunk in the war zone. Not only passenger 
ships but even hospital ships, marked clearly 
with the red cross, fell victims to German 
piracy. The Britannic and the Braemar 
Castle, hospital ships both, were sunk in the 
iEgean Sea, and the attitude of the Huns 
toward helpless non-combatants generally 
was indicated by the statement made by 
Mr. Bonar Law, in the House of Commons 
in February, 1918, that up to that date 14,120 
non-combatant men, women, and children. 



Whatever the German purpose, the prac- 
tical result of their policy was to force us 
into the conflict. For while many of our 
people desired war as a protest against 
German aggression, the Administration at 
Washington had made the submarine cam- 
paign the specific ground of its complaint. 
This campaign was prosecuted with in- 
creased vigor. Admiral Von Tirpitz suc- 
ceeded in convincing the German Government 
that, if freed from all consideration for neu- 
tral rights or opinions, he could, with the 
ruthless employment of his submarine boats, 
starve England into subjection in three 
months. 

In compliance with this policy the German 
Government directed Ambassador Von Bern- 
storff to notify Washington that after Feb- 
ruary 1st — the very next day — neutral ships, 
equally with those of belligerents, would 
be sunk in the war zone without warning 
and without mercy. 

This was a flat repudiation of all promises 
made to the United States. The notice was 
accompanied by the insulting proposition 



i6 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




The medal which was designed in Germany and distributed to commemorate the sinking of the Lusitania. With it \va 
•distributed information giving the size and tonnage of the great liner all set forth in the most approved style of German brag 
It is said, and generally believed, that these medals were struck off before the crime was committed. 




•S. Lusitania, the largest and most celebrated victim of Germany's ruthless submarine campaign. She was sunk May 7, 191S, 
with 1,951 persons on board of whom 1,198 perished 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



17 




President Wilson reading to Congress his famous war message on April 2, 1917. When he left the Capitol after read- 
ig this message he had built himself a monument which will stand while this nation lives. The entire country, as ex-Secretary 
< State Root expressed it, stood unitedly behind President Wilson in the gravest emergency that the nation had ever been 
impelled to meet. When President Wilson asked for war his words were not directed against a people but against an arti- 
iial evil. When he had finished speaking, the final day for imperialism and its abuses had begun. Everywhere throughout 
le world, save in those unfortunate lands where the iron hand of despotism was clinched for one last blow, this lofty message 
•IS received with limitless rejoicing. From that time forth President Wilson became and remained the foremost spokesman of 
ie Allied cause. 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



,#>ittii-fifll) (Loiigrrss of tbf ttlnilc!) Plaits ui A: 

:At the i"ii-st i!>cssioii, 



^uij h.lil al till' 



JOINT RESOLUTION 

■"■■■' ""--I- '■■■'"■■■■" 'I- I rl.M 

■■"•! <f- l-Tl- -I 'li- I' I 



I.I III.- |«"rl. \u- I'liil.-.l ^1: 



A r;.:i; Tlirivlniv l„- 



/,■,„,/,,.//,.,//... s,. ,„/,,„„/ //,„ / /;,, /.,/ (//,. r,.:,,, 

■■/ .1./ / . r „■ ,„/,/../. Til, I III.'. ..I .Mr l».u.,-..h il„ 

Si. I.'. m:mI III.' lii.|..Ti.l iM-riiiNM l...i.'iinii.'iil !. Ii..- iliii- I.. -i. il.ni 

ll... I'lJI.'.l M:il.-. i> li.T.I..- r..nii:,ll.i ,1... I.i,..h I. .11 ill,- I'r.-i.l.iil 

h.' i~ hri.'l.v. .iiii!i..ri/.'il ^iii.l .lir.'.l.'.l l„ ,'i,i|,l... III. .'iiiir,' ii;a..I .,i„I , 
l.,„'.-..l ll,.- I iiil.'.l Sl.,1,.. .'ili.l III,- iVM.iir.T- ,,l ll,.. I....,tiimi.-i.i l..,iirr. 

.....;. ill-l ll,.- lii,|-riNl i;.-ni,:.ii (;..v,-rni,„-ni ; ;i,ifl 1.1 lirili- ill Hi 

Mi,-.-,--l.ll I, -mill. , 111.. I, .ill ..1 III.- r.- .'.- ..r 111,- .-..iiiilrv -in- l,.-ivl.> |.l.-. 

Ill,- (■.,li-r.-.-> ..r ll,.- Iiiil.-.l Sl;il,-v 









Fac-simile of our Declaration of War 

that the United States might send one ship 
a week to England, Germany picking the 
port and prescribing the way in which the 
ship should be painted and what sort of a 
nondescript flag it should fly. London Punch 
picturesquely and accurately depicted Amer- 
ican sentiment concerning this arrogant 
proposition. 

The Kaiser was shown saying haughtily 
to Uncle Sam: "You may sail once a week to 
Falmouth." To v/hich the latter, hands in 
pockets and hat and cigar at a defiant angle 
retorts: "And you may go, all the time, to 
hell." 

The situation had become intolerable. 
Within 24 hours Von Bernstorff had re- 
ceived his passports and was dismissed. 

"The President could have done no less," 
he remarked philosophically. He knew, as 
the people of the United States did not, what 
he had been plotting in secret. With the 



utmost courtesy he was sent to h'. 
home, while the United States An 
bassador to Berlin was being bulliti 
by the German Government, and uii 
suited by the German people. '| 

In eighteen days after the beginningi 
ruthless submarine warfare 177 vesse 
were sunk, one being an American shi|; 
Up to April 3d, just preceding 01; 
declaration of war, 19 American shijj 
had been sunk, and 8 others unsucces:^ 
fully attacked. The temper of tH 
American people was not improvei 
by the fact that three of the vessei 
sunk were Belgian relief ships carryini 
from the United States food free! 
contributed for the aid of the Belgia; 
victims of German barbaritj'. 

March 14th, the American sh'ipj4lgoi 
qiiin was sunk and her people exposei 
in open boats for twenty-nine houri 
March 19th broughtnews of thedestruu 
tion of the City of Memph is, Illinois, ani 
the Vigilancia. Fifteen American sailon 
were drowned. The President ha. 
already called Congress in Special Sei 
sion, but these occurrences caused hii 
to set the date two weeks earlier — t 
April 2d. Before the Congress couli 
meet, news came of another sinkini 
in the North Sea and the loss ( 
the crew. , 

The nation by this time was fairr 
roused to the occasion. Patriotic mee> 
ings were held in all the cities, and mei 
without regard to party pledged their suppon 
to the Administration in the impending crisi 
But the pacifists were correspondingly activ'. 
At Madison Square Garden, New York, 
gathering of citizens that packed the hugi 
hall and called upon the President in ri 
uncertain tones to declare war upon Germam 
was followed within the week by a meetin 
of pacifists, of no smaller proportions, whici 
stoutly opposed war and vehemently callei 
upon the President to submit the issue to 
referendum of all the voters of the Unites 
States before making the final declar; 
tion. 

In the vigor and noise of their agitatioi; 
the pacifists seemed superficially to be tl 
dominant faction. Indeed, comparatively fe 
wanted war — the nation was about to acce{ 
it as a most abhorrent necessity violent! 
thrust upon the United States by Germa 
aggressions. If the referendum had bee 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



19 



ileied and the question asked had been 
)o we want war?" it would probably 

we been answered by an overwhelming vote 

["No!" But the question was, in fact, 
lust we fight to protect our national 
lor, our national integrity, our national 
ety?" and to this the one answer, though 
en in sorrow, was "Yes!" 
The Congress met at noon on April 2d. 
:er organization and a few polite tributes 

[jthe first woman ever seated in the House 
Representatives as a member, the House 
ourned until night. When it reassembled 
)resented a dignified and historic spectacle, 
-ectly before the Speaker's stand sat the 
mbers of the Supreme Court. The dip- 
latic gallery to one side was crowded 
h diplomats in uniform or evening dress — 
' representatives of Germany and Austria 
tig conspicuous by their absence. The 
leries were crowded with privileged spec- 
Drs each one of whom displayed an 
lerican flag or the white badge of pacifism, 
half-past eight the doors opened and the 
late marched in, headed by the vice- 
isident. Again the American flag was 
ch in evidence, though one or two irre- 



concilable pacifists among the senators failed 
to display it. 

When the President entered and mounting 
the rostrum with quick, nervous steps was 
presented to the joint session, the tumult 
was unbounded. All were instantly on 
their feet — pacifists with the rest — cheering 
and waving their national emblems. Grave 
justices of the Supreme Court shouted like 
boys at a baseball game, as the President 
stood impassively waiting for quiet that 
he might begin his address. 

The President's address was both grave 
and eloquent. The hesitation and incertitude 
'which had characterized some of his earlier 
utterances were gone, but the deep regret 
he felt at the engulfing of the nation in war 
was clearly apparent. He strove to dis- 
criminate between the German Government 
and its people, saying that for the latter 
"We have no feeling but one of sympathy and 
friendship." But he denounced the German 
autocracy and concluded his appeal for war 
in these solemn phrases: 

The world must be made safe for democracy. Its 
peace must be planted upon the tested foundations 










-■0'^^^£ 



Photograph by Kodel & Herbert, N Y. 

'est Street, New York, congested with freight which cannot be shipped to foreign ports owing to Germany's ruthless sub- 
marine campaign 



20 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. 
We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no 
indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation 
for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but 
one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We 
shall be satisfied when those rights have been made 
as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can 
make them. . . . 

To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our 
fortunes, everything that we are and everything that 
we have, with the pride of those who know that the 
day has come when America is privileged to spend her 
blood and her might for the principles that gave her 
birth and happiness and the peace which she has 
treasured. 

God helping her, she can do no other. 



indeed break out with a severe rasli of p-, 
triotic bunting, but from this Western towi 
were largely exempt. There were no stret 
mass meetings. The seeker for excitemei 
and dramatic detail was in the position ( 
Captain Robley D. Evans, when he looke 
up in the midst of the Battle of Santiaj 
to find his ship destitute of a battle fla] 
"What the devil's the use of a battle withoi 
a battle flag.'"' cried "Fighting Bob" di 
gustedly and soon had two flying. Tl 
Onited States had not yet come to its e;t 
citement. It only slowly roused to the poiii 
of noisy enthusiasm. But determinatio 
and the will to win were growing every day. 




© Underwou.l Sc Urulir 

This liner was steaming across a placid sea when she was sighted by a German U-boat which instantly opened fire. As the 
torpedo hit its mark the engine room was wrecked by a terrific explosion. The crew was rescued by a British patrol boat. 



Amid renewed cheering the President 
left the Hall and was swiftly driven back to 
the White House. To all intents and pur- 
poses the nation was from that moment at 
war. At war for the first time since 1812 
with a formidable foreign foe. Yet to ob- 
servers, not alone in Washington but in 
other great cities of the land, the amazing 
feature of the crisis was the total lack of 
excitement, indeed of enthusiasm. There 
were no cheering mobs flaunting flags and 
parading the streets. There were no mob 
assaults upon the most outspoken of Ger- 
mans. New York and eastern cities did 



Congress was not slow in granting all th 
President had asked. The Joint Resolution 
declaring a state of war to exist were passe 
by the Senate April 4th and by the Hous 
April 5th. There was debate, of course, an 
an acrimonious one. Six senators vote 
against war. In the House the vote for i 
was unanimous save for the single balk 
of a socialist representative who felt force 
to vote according to the internationi 
tenets of his party. The same day th 
President issued his proclamation to a 
the world and the United States was a 
war. 



CHAPTER II 



OUR NATIONAL UNPREPAREDNESS — THE STRUGGLE OVER CONSCRIPTION — 

FORCES OPPOSED TO THE DRAFT SCENE AT THE FIRST DRAWING OF NUMBERS 

MOBILIZATION OF THE NATIONAL ARMY LACK OF SUPPLIES WORK OF THE 

WAR WELFARE SOCIETIES LIFE IN THE CANTONMENTS THE SOLDIERs' 

FOOD SPORTS AND GAMES MILITARY TRAINING LIFE IN THE FOREIGN 

CAMPS 




T 



HE nation 
was thus at 
war. In the 
face of an 
emergency that few 
had expected would 
so soon confront the 
American people, the 
question was asked 
and not for the first 
time, "What is our 
preparation for war; 
how are we equipped 
to give battle to the 
nations of central 
Europe that for fifty 
3'-ears have been pre- 
paring for precisely 
this emergency, and 
for four years have 
[been turning their already well-drilled soldiers 
[into battle-tried veterans?" 

The United States indeed was sadly de- 
ficient in all that goes toward national 
defense. There had been in progress for some 
years an active agitation, conducted by far- 
' seeing citizens, for the expansion of the mili- 
tary and naval forces of the United States. 
The propaganda received but little encourage- 
ment from men in active political life. Even 
the President frowned on it and dismissed 
lit contemptuously within but a few months 
of the time when we were called upon to 
give battle to the greatest of all military 
powers. But the pertinacity of the friends 
of preparedness compelled a certain amount 
of provision for the needs of national de- 
fense, and June 3, 1916, an act of Congress 
fixed the total strength of the regular army 
at 293,000 men, the national guard at 409,000, 
while by a later act the personnel of the navy 
was fixed at 87,000 men. The men needed 



were to be obtained by volunteer enlistment 
only. 

This was a notable step forward for this 
nation in the matter of provision for national 
defense, but how trifling it was in the face 
of a world in arms may be judged by the 
fact that at that very moment the losses 
in the French, German, or British armies 
were exceeding each week the total number 
of men we provided for our defense. Even 
as it was the small number asked was not 
obtained through the methods of volunteer- 
ing. When war was declared in April of 
1917 the regular army lacked more than 
100,000 of the number authorized. The 
navy had done somewhat better propor- 
tionately, but it, too, was short of its requisite 
quota when the nation made that entrance 
upon the war which all its leading men should 
have foreseen was inevitable. 

The slowness of volunteer enlistments 
was by no means due to any hesitation on 
the part of the American people to enlist 
for the defense of the nation when they were 
needed. But they had been assured, were 
almost daily being assured, by the leading 
men in the national government that there 
was not the slightest chance of our being 
involved in the European tempest. At the 
moment a spluttering struggle with one or 
the other of the claimants to power in Mexico 
was keeping our army on the southwestern 
border, engaged in peculiarly harassing police 
duty. Men who would have leaped at the 
chance to fight for their country and for 
humanity in France refused to take up 
arms in a petty quarrel for no conceivable 
ends in Mexico. The fact that it was not 
unwillingness to serve, but hesitation be- 
cause of the character of the service asked 
was clearly shown by the tremendous jump 
in enlistments when war upon Germany was 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Chicago's elevated fleet landing recruits for the Navy 



the enlistments in the 
regular army totalled 
204,754, or more than 
three times as many 
as during the preced- 
ing twelve-month. 

Over the enactment 
of a law for the con- 
scription of the youth 
of the land into the 
armies there raged for 
some time a fierce de- 
bate in Congress, the 
press, and amongst the 
people. It had been 
more than half a cen- 
tury since the United 
States had asked any- 
thing other than 
voluntary military ser- 
vice of her sons. The 
Civil War had been 
fought for years before 



actually declared. Between April i, a few the method of the draft was applied and 
days before the declaration of war, and Sep- to the end of the struggle the men who 
tember 5, when the draft became operative, had volunteered held themselves of finer 




The U. S. cruiser Recruit at anchor in Union Square, New York, winning volunteers for Uncle Sam's fleet through the seas of 

oratory which surge over her decks 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREUT WAR 



23 




© Committee on Public Information 
Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, drawing the first number from the bowl in the draft which began June 27, 1918 



24 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



25 




I'hotograpli by KaJcl i: Herbe 

Philadelphia's 25,000 drafted men receiving their farewell tribute 



lity and higher pa- 

j)tism than the con- 

pts. 

"o those who urged 

he very outset that 
volunteer system 

[lid not bring for- 
in season the 

rmous numbers of 

n that would be 

ded in the colossal 

flict upon which we 

e entering, the op- 

ents of the draft 

lared that there was 

vay to judge of the 

;nt of the volun- 

ingwhen it became 

wn that the volun- 

s would see service 

sreign parts. They 

sted, and with reason, that the sluggish- better than police duty on the Mexican 

j of enlistments when men had nothing border to look forward to was no criterion 

by which to judge the 
numbers who would 
come forward for fight- 
ing in France. 

To a very great ex- 
tent the struggle be- 
tween the opposing 
schools of thought set- 
tled down to a debate 
over a matter of senti- 
ment. The direct 
question whether 
enough men would 
volunteer to fight the 
battles of their country 
in so huge a struggle 
was one that could not 
have been decided in 
advance of a test, and 
to make the test and 
fail would have been 
disastrous. Most 
observers agree that 
the event showed that 
it would have been 
suicidal to have relied 
altogether on volun- 
tary enlistments, al- 
though the promise of 
its advocates that it 
would bring out the 
very flower of the land 
and create an army 




Vives and sweethuai 



mg last farewells to the men of the "Fighting Sixty-Ninth" 



26 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 





The American plane on the left has made a hit. His shots have perforated the enemy's gasoline tank and set hi' 
plane ahre. One wing has broken away and the German aviator is about to jump 



28 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



made up wholly of self-sacrificing patriots 
was most enticing. 

Indeed it began very early during the dis- 
cussion to be apparent to observers with 
good opportunities for studymg what was 
going on that the continuance of volunteer 
enlistments would in fact be most disastrous 
to the country, and that the more successful 
it proved in raising large numbers of men 
the more hurt it would do in the end to the 
nation. For, precisely as its advocates had 
urged, the volunteer system brought at 
once to the army in a patriotic burst of en- 
thusiasm the very flower of American youth. 
Offices, stores, and workshops were stripped 
of their best men. The ranks were being 
filled up with men who were naturally fit 
to be officers. Foreseeing a long war with 
the inevitable exhaustion of this class of 
soldiers, public men began to ask themselves 
whence would come the officers to lead the 
later armies that must be formed. 

It seemed, too, obviously unjust that to 
the less patriotic should come the busmess 



opportunities that would be opened at homi 
with a great part of the manhood of thi 
nation gone off to the war. There wa 
danger that political power might pass int( 
the hands of the class that was too selfish 
or too cowardly to fight. This would havi 
been equally a menace to the country anc 
an injustice to the men at the front. All 
told, the arguments for universal militarj, 
service, the selection of the active partici^ 
pants to be by draft, seemed unanswerable 
Nevertheless, when the Administration oril 
April 6th introduced a bill of that character iii 
encountered immediate and vigorous opposii 
tion. Southern members of Congress pro) 
fessed to fear that it might lead to a race wai 
by accustoming negroes to the use of arms^ 
Others thought conscription an affront tci 
the patriotism of the people. The Speakei 
of the House of Representatives distinguished 
himself by remarking that out his way 
"people saw mighty little difference between 
a conscript and a convict." The democrai 
who happened to be the chairman of th( 




The drafted men of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, being given a rousing send off by their fellow townsmen. If the Kaiser counted upoi' 
disloyalty among the thousands of Milwaukee citizens of German extraction scenes such as this must have disillusioned him 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



iHouse Committee on Military Affairs so 
'strenuously opposed conscription that he 
"refused to advocate the bill, fathered by a 
democratic president, and it was necessary 
'to call upon the ranking republican member 
to press it. In Representative Julius Kahn 
the measure found a friend, and a wise cham- 
jOion whose earnest and non-partisan efforts 
n behalf of our proper mihtary organization 
will not soon be forgotten by the people. 

With the nation at war, and our allies 
trying loudly for aid in the field the contro- 
.^Versy raged for weeks. House and Senate, 
''each adhering to its own point of view, passed 
divergent bills and a long-drawn-out con- 
ference between committees of the two houses 
Followed. It was not until May i6th that 
the army bill passed the House. The day 
;after it ran the gauntlet of the Senate. In 
e House certain timid souls were willing 
to dodge responsibility by having it passed 
thout a roll-call. In the Senate eight 
votes were cast against it. Immediately 
upon signing the bill the President issued 
a proclamation calling for a first draft of 
;oo,ooo men and fixing June 5, 1917, as regis- 
ration day. 

There was a certain amount of apprehen- 
sion lest there should be widespread and even 
violent opposition to the draft. The United 
states had long prided itself upon having 
cept its people free from the heavy demand 
'or mihtary service which the European 
ations made upon their citizens, and many 
saw in this emergency legislation the be- 
inning of a permanent system of militarism 
lere. Such people were outspoken in their 




© Committee on Publii. Intormation 

A doughboy consuming the famous Salvation Army doughnuts 



opposition to the draft. To them were 
added those who were conscientiously op- 
posed to war and who, despite the endeavors 
made by Congress to respect their convictions, 
had not been assured exemption from service. 
Lastly, there was a very considerable body of 
American citizens who were either openly or. 
covertly in sympathy with Germany and 
who could hardly be expected to give hearty 




^ great gathering of new recruits listening tc patriotic addresses of distinguished 

Lewis, Washington 



:ivillan and military- authorities at Camp 



3° 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




A company of the now famous Rainbow Division having their equipment inspected at Camp Mills on 
Long Island just before "going over" 



support to a war upon what was in many 
instances the country of their birth. 



At the outset 
it appearec 
that all thesti 
forces of di 
content witF 
the draft might 
combine and 
offer an opposi- 
tion that might 
be serious. But' 
nothing of thei 
sort occurred] 
It will ever be 
to the credit oti 
the patriotism 
and the good 
sense of the 
people of thet] 
United States;] 
that howeveri' 
general mayv 
have been that 
feeling of bitten 
disappoint- 
ment that att 
last we hadi 
been forced to: 
the adoption of I 
the military 
measure s^ 
which, as prac-- 
ticed by foreign) 
nations we had always condemned, there 
arose in this moment, so critical to our 




A company street at Camp Devens, Mass., showing members of Company E ready for an inspection. 

ment must be in its exact place 



nal Film Serv: 

Every article of equip- 



I 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



llation, no opposition 
p the Government's 
f/ar measures that was 
lufficiently extended 
10 warrant general at- 
lention. Throughout 
he nation the registra- 
lion passed oflF without 
ncident and at the 
ind of the day the 
lames of nearly 
(1,000,000 Americans, 
jf the ages between 
Iwenty-one and thirty- 
jne, had been inscribed 
Ipon the rolls of pos- 
Jible defenders of their 
jlountry upon the 
[eld of battle. 
I July 20th saw the first 
rawing of numbers 
)r the selection from 




Photograph by Ccntial .\t«s I'l 

Some New Jersey drafted men digging trenches at Camp Dix, N. J. 



le registration lists of those who should 
i'st enter the service. The occasion was an 
Istoric one and a contemporary description 
f the scene will be interesting. The draw- 
ig was held in one of the rooms of the 
enate Office Building and was conducted 



by Secretary of War Baker. An eye witness 
writes of the scene: 

A handkerchief was tied about the eyes of Secretary- 
Baker, the camera squad focused their instruments, 
the calcium light of the movie operators played upon 




Cornell cadets having a tent-pitching drill on the beautiful campus of Cornell University at Ithaca. N. Y 




A rollicking modern version of Valley Forge 



the big blackboards in the rear, and the lottery 
began. 

Secretary Baker plunged his hand into the large 
glass jar containing the 10,500 numbers inclosed in 
capsules and drew one, announcing to the spectators, 
"I have drawn the first number." A clerk assigned 
by the War Department opened the capsule and an- 
nounced "258." An officer seated at the long table 
upon which were spread the tally sheets repeated the 
number, and another clerk walked to a large black- 
board at the rear and wrote upon it the figures. Sen- 
ator Chamberlain of Oregon, likewise blindfolded, drew 
the second number. He was plainly nervous. His 
hand was guided to the top of the jar, which was four- 
teen inches in diameter. "The second number is 
2,522," said the announcer, and again there came the 
click of the cameras, the rustle of copy paper, and the 
murmur of excited riien and women who thronged the 
committee room. 

Members of Congress and high officials of the army 
attended the start of the drawing. Eight numbers were 
drawn by officials before the ceremony became routine, 
with students from various universities acting as the 
blindfolded withdrawers of the fateful capsules. 

A round of applause greeted the appearance of Gen- 
eral Crowder, who had worked tirelessly for days per- 
fecting the details of the nation-wide lottery. Adjt. 
Gen. McCam, too, was applauded by the throng which 
crowded the committee rooms. Members of the Senate 
and House Committees on Military Affairs and other 



members of Congress occupied seats of honor at the 
drawing. 

The unprecedented ceremony seemed particularly 
to impress Representative Julius Kahn, who had led 
the fight in the House on the Army Draft bill. "It ii 
an inspiring sight," he commented as he left the room 
soon after the proceedings settled down to a routine 
basis. Mr. Kahn was born in Germany and came to 
the United States when a child. 

As the eighth number was drawn by an official, 
Secretary Baker said: "We will wait a moment while 
the photographers remove their apparatus. Meanwhile, 
I want to ask that perfect quiet prevail. This is a most 
important occasion and absolute quiet is necessary." 

John Phillips, a student of Princeton University, was 
the first "regular teller" who took his place at the glass 
jar and began to draw out the capsules — black-looking 
affairs, because the paper upon which the numbers were 
written was coated black on the outer surface. It was 
impossible for any one to examine the exterior of a cap- 
sule and ascertain the number within. The blindfold- 
ing lent an additional touch of the dramatic to th( 
event, but it wrs unnecessary. Every few minute; 
Major Gen. C. A. Devol, delegated by Secretary Bakei 
to guard the glass container, walked over to stir the cap- 
sules with a long wooden spoon. On the handle of the 
spoon was a piece of bunting, red, white, and blue 
General Devol stirred deeply, bringing the capsules a1 
the bottom to the top and a few moments later sending 
the capsules at the top to the bottom. While this 



UNITED STATES 

stirring process was on there 
was a momentary pause in 
the recordmg of the num- 
bers. The only interrup- 
tions were the frequent 
changes of tired announcers 
and tabulators and the 
removal of the blackboards. 
jWhen a group of five hun- 
Idred had been written the 
jfirst section of the board 
Iwas taken out to be photo- 
igraphed to establish an 
■absolute record, while a 
second section was substi- 
tuted. The lottery ended 
at 2:15 o'clock on the 
morning of July 21st, and 
ilater the same day the fig- 
ures were officially checked 
and rechecked in the office 
of General Crowder. There 
were a number of tally 
;sheets kept simultaneously, 
in addition to the recording 
of the drawn numbers on 
'two blackboards, and every 
humber was gone over 
and checked by a force of 
pxperts under the supervi- 
sion of army officers. The 
result of the drawing was 
iset into type at the Gov- 
ernment Printing Office. 
/'Master sheets" containing 
the numbers in the order 

n which they were drawn were then sent by General 
Crowder to each Governor and distributed to each 
lOcal registration board. 




In August of 1917 the War Department 
rdered the mobihzation, in four instalments, 
bf this first draft of 687,000 men. Five 



A favorite amusement of the candidate officers at the Negro officers, training camp at Fort 
Des Moines, Iowa 



per cent, were to proceed directly to the 
camps; the remainder were to be called 
later. The men were classified in various 
ways according to their social and industrial 
condition. The efl^ort was made to defer 
the actual calling of married men with de- 
pendent families, and of men whose trades 




A tug ul wdi at Camp Mills, L. 1. In spite ui the hard, intensive training the boys tciund time for games 



34 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




California national guardsmen, inducted into the National Army, arf 
havinii tliLir first mess at Camp Kearn\', San Diei^o, California 





The scientifically balanced ration which keeps up the health rate 



At the absorbing 
task of eating the 
" chow " 




©Intornational Film Service, Inc. 

Amateur soldier cooks amid their pots and pans 
learning their job 



Lined up for mess at the N. Y. Stati 
Cadet Training Camp at Peekskill, N. Yi 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




A traveling kitchen at rest while the kitchen squad is at work preparing 
mess 



Uncle Sam's army loaves being handled like cord wood 

© Underwood 8i Underwood 



Underwood & Underwood. 

Making wholesome bread by the wholesale for 
thousands of hungry boys 




36 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Rookies going over the top for the first time. Some regulars 
ing the part of the hated I 

or callings were such as to make them neces- 
sary in keeping up the industrial activity 
of the nation. 

In September this first instalment began 
to appear at the camps and cantonments 
scattered over the country. In many of the 
greater cities, notably New York and Wash- 
ington, the departure of the first detachments 
of conscripts were signalized by great public 
manifestations. But this war curiously 
enough was destitute very largely of the 
pageants and spectacles which have ordinarily 
accompanied the departure of a nation's 
troops. The writer was in Paris at the 
outbreak of war, and saw tens of thousands 



of Frenchmefii 
go to the from 
without a mili 
tary band a; 
they marchec 
through th( 
boulevards, 
and scarcely 
with the tap ol 
a drum to mark 
the step. Sc 
we shall find 
that in the^ 
United States, 
when the time^ 
came to send 
our boys 
abroad, they 
were marched 
forth secretly at 
night, being 
taken to their 
ships under 
cover of dark- 
ness and drop- 
ping down the 
harbors with- 
out any cere- 
mony atten- 
dant upon their 
departure. 
This was of 
course due to 
the necessity of 
keeping the 
movements of 
our troops sec- 
ret lest lurking 
submarines 
might waylay 
and sink the 
heavy-laden transports on their way across. 

The cantonments to which the drafted 
men were sent immediately upon being 
mustered into the army were great vil- 
lages of frame houses; in fact, actual 
towns. Each one was designed to house an 
infantry division of approximately 40,000. 
In this division would be comprehended 
two brigades of infantry and one of field 
artillery; one regiment of engineers, one field 
signal battalion, three machine gun battahons, 
and the necessary motor and horse trains 
for the transport of supplies, ammunition, 
and sanitary appurtenances. The men 
reached these camps in four instalments, 



are holding the enemy trenches and 
ioche 



UNITED 




Charging from behind a bomb shelter — the second man from the right is about to throw a hand bomb. 

ing causes it to explode in six seconds 



The motion of thruw- 



the mobilization being completed by Octo- 
ber. 

The method of distributing the troops 
once they had arrived at the cantonments 
in which they were to receive military in- 
struction before departing for France was 
somewhat complicated. It was the effort of 
|the mditary authorities to keep men coming 
from the same neighborhood together. But 
this purpose was qualified somewhat by the 
necessity of keeping those who followed the 
same technical trade in a coherent body 
as much as possible. The National Army of 
the United States, being drawn from all 
sections and strata of our people, compre- 
hended among its soldiers men trained in 
every industry and in every art. They could 
take a locomotive to pieces and rebuild it; 
they could lay the track of a railroad or 
they could construct an automobile truck. 
Though the endeavor had been to leave in 
civil life workmen necessary to the industrial 
life of the nation, the army was itself a great 
hive of trained workmen who could go into 
almost any land, however much devastated, 
rebuild it, and maintain themselves there 
without outside assistance. 

To supply these men with the necessaries 
of life was in itself a collosal task. Readers 
will recall how wide-spread and vociferous 



equipment at the beginning of the creation 
of the army. The country did not thor- 
oughly understand that this nation was not 
like Germany in having devoted its best 
energies for fifty years to the creation and 
storing of military supplies against a war 
which its rulers knew must come. In the 
nations of continental Europe, even in France 
the moment war was declared the uniforms, 
guns, and equipment for the entire army were 
ready at fixed places and every man of mili- 
tary age in the nation knew at what spot 
he could report. To the American mind 
that system has always been repugnant. 
In time of peace we have persistently thought 
of peace and refused to prepare for war. 
Accordingly, when confronted with the prob- 
lem of equipping more than a million men 
for service which it was desired should begin 
within six months we found many perplexities 
in the situation and the men themselves 
suffered not a little from the lack of suitable 
clothing in winter camps. Fortunately 
enough, there was in this war, unlike the 
situation during our Spanish war, no com- 
plaint whatsoever regarding the quality or 
the quantity of food furnished the armies. 
We had no "embalmed beef" scandal. 
Unquestionably the success of this branch 
of the commissary department was due to 



was the complaint of lack of uniforms and ^ the fact that the great food producers of the 



38 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IX THE GREAT WAR 



39 



United States had for three years, prior to 
our entrance into the war, been feeding 
the armies of the AUies. Their methods 
were properly systematized, and to feed our 
armies simply necessitated an extension and 
amplification of them. 



telling in full, and the liberality of the Ameri- 
can people in meeting the cost of this helpful 
service passed all earlier achievements. The 
"drives" for charity were as widely extended 
and as earnestly pressed as those involved 
in placing a national loan, and the amounts 



We had hardly entered into the war when expended cannot have fallen far short of a 
patriotic and humane people throughout the billion dollars during the period of the war. 

Some description of incidents of life at the 
various camps will be of interest to those 
who did not serve in the army, and may 
perhaps arouse recollections, at once pleasant 
and painful, among those who did. ^^ hat 
happened in one camp was as a rule that which 
happened in all, for everything was done by 
routine and on a schedule which was followed 
universally. The American genius for stan- 
dardization was applied to the organization of 
camps as to the building of motors. Let us 
quote at this point the day's schedule at a 
typical camp: 



countr\' recognized the necessitv of furnishing 
to our soldiers something more than mere 
food and raiment and as a result such or- 
ganizations as the ^ oung Men's Christian 
Association, the Red Cross, The Knights of 
Columbus and others took up the task of 
ameliorating the condition of the soldiers 
and sailors. Here again our men profited 
b}' the fact that the war was old to the world 
if new to the United States, for all of these 
organizations had been doing much to help 
cheer and comfort the soldiers of our Allies 
abroad. What was done by them, not in 
our camps 
alone and not 
in the United 
States alone, 
merits a history 
of its own and 
in due time no 
doubt that 
volume will be 
supplied. Their 
huts establish- 
ed in every 
camp, their 
uniformed sec- 
retaries work- 
ing amid the 
men and trying 
in ever\' possi- 
ble waytobring 
cheer into hard 
lives; the en- 
tertainments 
they organized 
with theatrical 
talent from 
B r o ad wa y , 
often volun- 
teered with the 
characteristic 
liberaHty of the 
dramatic pro- 
fess i o n — a 1 1 
these things 
make up a rec- 
ord well worth 



}■■ 


0^ ^ ^9^Jm^ 


m 




m^^^^Km* 


^^K^^-JWm .... MaB 







General Pershing and General Sibert talking with President Poincare and General Petain. General 
Petain, the saviour of Verdun, has since been made a Marshal of France 



+0 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




-^. 



'^'f^^-f^ •; -^ 




An American artillery regiment on its way to the fighting zone mt ranee. I he marksmanship of our gunners amazed the lleiiiuins 

Back and forth, back and forth, we marched on the 
black strip of drill ground between barracks. I had 
never walked so much in my life, and sweat rolled from 
every pore. My back ached dully; my feet burned. 
But the Second Lieutenant (a youth with a pale, thin 
fringe above his lip) continued to command sharply 
"One, Two, Three, Four; One, Two, Three, Four!" 

Suddenly he wheeled about and came up to me 
briskly. 

"Get in step!" he shouted, glaring at me. "\'ou are 
not dead yet." 

The muscles of my jaws twitched, and I breathed 
an oath of vengeance. But I fell in step and I kept up 
with the count. 

In the construction of the camps the chief 
features were the barracks. These were 
rough frame buildings, of two stories, with a 
low-pitched roof covered with fire-proof 
roofing. The building contained bunks for 
150 to 200 men, or about one company. 
The main floor housed the mess room and 
kitchen, and in some instances a company 
hall used for purposes of recreation. Re- 
markable speed was shown in the erection 
of these edifices, the record time being 
said to have been made by a contractor at 
Camp Pike, near Little Rock, Ark. It is 
claimed that on a bare piece of ground at 
nine one morning he set a gang of carpenters 
to work and at 11.55 had a company barracks 
all complete, cleaned up, and the workmen 
awa}' busy on another job. 

But to return to the vital question food: 



S-4S 


Reveille 


6 - 6.1S 


Calisthenics 


6-30- 7 


Breakfast 


7 - 7-30 


Police of Quarters 


7.30- 8.4s 


School of the Soldier 


8.4s- 9.45 


School of the Squad 


9.45-10.15 


Inspection of Quarters 


10.15-10.45 


Semaphore Signalling Drill 


10.45-11.45 


Reading and Explanation of Articles of 




War 


13 - I 


Dinner 


I - 1.30 


Issue and Exchange of Equipment 


1.30- 2.15 


School of the Soldier 


2.30- 3.15 


School of the Squad 


3-iS- 4 


Instruction and Guard Duty 


4-15- 5 


Calisthenics 


S - S4S 


Rest Period 


S4S 


Retreat 


6 


Supper 


10.30 


Tattoo 


10.4s 


Taps 



The men were hardly landed in their 
camps before they began work on the rudi- 
ments of drill. The hand salute which is 
given so airily by men passing on the street 
IS not so readily learned. Several hours 
are spent in drilling in this simple perfor- 
mance. After that, divided up into squads 
of eight men, they were taught to march 
in step. This seems like a simple task 
but recruits have left on record the fact 
that they did not find it so easy. One 
writes : 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



41 



At mealtimes, to the call of the bugle the 
men were marched to each mess hall, and 
there in single file carrymg m their hands 
the metal plate and mug from which each 
must eat, whatever his home training in the 
matter of porcelam, they marched past 
the service table where the dishes of each 
were piled high with food, and his cup filled 
with steaming coflPee. Quantity seemed to 
be the first consideration, though from none 
of the camps did there ever arise any com- 
plaint of the quality of the food served. 
But certainly the assortment and amount 
piled on each plate were not designed for 
weaklings, and in the case of most of the men, 
who took it greedily, would have revolted 
the more delicate appetites they cherished 
in civilian life. 

Sample menus may not be uninteresting. 
Here are typical meals : 

BREAKFAST 
Steak, potatoes, rice, and coffee. 

DINNER 
Meat stew, mashed potatoes, boiled onions, peas, 
bread and butter, pudding or pie, and tea, coffee or 
lemonade for a beverage. 

SUPPER 
Fried bacon, canned salmon, potato salad, a vegeta- 
ble, bread and butter, and peaches or some other canned 
fruit. 

I . . . 

' This is a typical menu for an ordinary 

day, and though in the National Army there 

were gathered youths who in civil life had 

led pampered lives there was no complaint 

about this provender. Hunger, stimulated 



by plenty of work in the open air and regular 
hours, furnished the best sauce. 

And there was indeed plenty of both work 
and play in the open air. As the schedule 
shows, drilling occupied most of the time, 
but even with drills, trench digging, long 
hikes and bayonet practice, the whole routine 
of the soldier's physical exercise was not 
completed. After hours of this sort of work 
the boys would turn to athletics for recrea- 
tion, and baseball, football, and all varieties 
of athletic sports engaged most of their 
leisure time. The athletic field of one 
cantonment was equipped with not less 
than sixteen separate baseball diamonds 
and many a half holiday saw sixteen separate 
games going on, each with its enthusiastic 
crowd of "fans" rooting for their favorite 
team. Another camp had twenty-six foot- 
ball gridirons and it was not extraordinary 
for all twenty-six to be occupied at the same 
time. Then the twenty-six crowds of specta- 
tors was something to more than match the 
biggest November game in the Yale bowl or 
the Harvard stadium. Boxing, too, was a 
favorite sport and the wide-spread draft 
had caught in its net several hundred prac- 
ticed pugilists who were assigned to in- 
structor's duty. At times as many as a 
thousand men would be engaged in taking a 
fistic lesson, directed by an instructor perched 
on a lofty platform with assistants circulating 
among the crowd and helping the boys in 
the rudimentary art of handling their fists. 
All physical work of this character, and even 
boyish games like leap frog and prisoners' 
base, were encouraged by the instructors at 
the camps. The good effect they had on the 




A column of American artillery passing through a village of Picardy on their way to the first-line trenches 



42 



UNITED STATES I 



physical training of" the men to Ht them for 
war suggests the reflection that it might not 
be unwise to encourage men to play a little 
more in fitting themselves for peace. 

There were in all sixteen cantonments 
for the National Army and sixteen for the 
National Guard. Besides these there were 
officers' training camps and special camps 
for the marine corps, the aviation force, and 
for the reception of men whose training was 
completed and who were being concentrated 
immediately prior to being put on transports 
and sent to the foreign battlefields. A full 
list of the National Army and National Guard 
cantonments with their locations and the 
geographical distribution of the troops which 
were assigned to each will be of general 
interest: 

NATIONAL ARMY CANTONMENTS 

The names borne by the various camps are those of distinguished 
soldiers oj the United States 





ORGANIZ- 






1 SITE 


ATION 


TROOPS FROM — 


CAMP 


Ayer,Mass. 


76th Di- 


Maine, New Hampshire. 


Devens 




vision. 


Vermont, Massachu- 
setts, Rhode Island, 
and Connecticut. 




Yaphank, 


77th Di- 


Metropolitan portion of 


Upton 


Long Isl- 


vision. 


New York. 




and, N.Y. 








Wrights- 


78th Di- 


Remainder of New York 


Dix 


town, N.J. 


vision. 


and Northern Pennsyl- 
vania. 




Annapolis 


79th Di- 


Southern Pennsylvania, 


Meade 


Junction, 


vision. 






Md. 








Petersburg, 


Soth Di- 


New Jersey, Virginia, 


Lee 


Va. 


vision. 


Maryland, Delaware, 
and District of Colum- 
bia. 




Columbia, 


Sist Di- 


Tennessee, North Caro- 


Jackson 


S. C. 


vision. 


lina, South Carolina, 
and Florida. 




Atlanta, 


82d Di- 


Georgia and Alabama. 


Gordon 


Ga. 


vision. 






Chlllicotbe, 


83d Di- 


Ohio and West Virginia. 


Sherman 


Ohio. 


vision. 






Louisville, 


84th Di- 


Indiana and Kentucky. 


Taylor 


Ky. 


vision. 






Battle 


85th Di- 


Michigan and Wiscon- 


Custer 


Creek, 


vision. 


sin. 




Mich. 








Rockford, 


86th Di- 


Illinois. 


Grant 


111. 


vision. 






Little 


87th Di- 


Arkansas, Louisiana, 


Pike 


Rock,Ark. 


vision. 


and Mississippi. 




Des 


88th Di- 


Minnesota, Iowa, Ne- 


Dodge 


Moines, 


vision. 


braska, North Dakota, 




Iowa. 




and South Dakota. 




Fort Riley, 


89th Di- 


Kansas, Missouri, and 


Funston 


Kan. 


vision. 


Colorado. 




Fort Sam 


90th Di- 


Texas, Arizona, New 


Travis 


Houston, 


vision. 


Mexico, and Oklahoma. 




Tex. 









N THE 


GREAT WAR 






ORGANIZ- 






SITK 


.\TION 


TROOPS FROM — 


CAMP 


.American 


91st Di- 


Washington, Oregon, 


Lewis 


Lake, 


vision. 


California, Nevada, 




Wash. 




Utah, Idaho, Montana, 
and Wyoming. 




Charlotte, 


26th (oid 


Maine, New Hampshire, 


Greene 


N. C. 


S) Di- 
vision. 


Vermont, Massachu- 






setts, Rhode Island, 








and Connecticut. 




Spartan- 


27th (old 


New York. 


Wads- 


burg,S.C. 


6) p i - 
vision. 




worth 


Augusta, 


2Sth (old 


Pennsylvania. 


Hancock 


Ga. 


7). pi- 
vision. 






Anniston, 


29th (old 


New Jersey, Virginia, 


McClel- 


Ala. 


8) Di- 


Marj'land, Delaware, 


lan 




vision. 


and District of Colum- 
bia. 
Tennessee, North Caro- 




Greenville, 


30th (old 


Sevier 


S. C. 


9) P i - 


lina, and South Caro- 






vision. 


lina. 




Macon, Ga. 


31st (old 


Georgia, Alabama, and 


Wheeler 




10) Di- 


Florida. 






vision. 






Waco, Tex. 


3 2d (old 


Michigan and Wiscon- 


MacAr- 




11) Di- 


sin. 


thur 




vision. 






Houston, 


3 2d (old 


Illinois. 


Logan 


Tex. 


12) Di- 
vision. 






De mi n g. 


34th (old 


Minnesota, Iowa, Ne- 


Cody 


N. Mex. 


13) Di- 


braska, North Dakota, 






vision. 


and South Dakota. 




Fort Sill, 


35th (old 


Missouri and Kansas. 


D n 1 • 


Okla. 


14). Di- 
vision. 




phan 


Fort 


36th (old 


Texas and Oklahoma. 


Bowie 


Worth, 


l^) Di- 






Tex. 


vision. 






Mont- 


37th (old 


Ohio and West Virginia. 


S h e r i " 


gomery, 


16) Di- 




dan. 


Ala. 


vision. 






Hatties- 


38th (old 


Indiana and Kentucky 


Shelby 


\'^-^' 


17). Di- 






Miss. 


vision. 






Alex a n - 


39th (old 


Louisiana, Mississippi, 


Beaure- 


dria, La. 


18) Di- 
vision 


and Arkansas. 


gard 


Linda 


40th (old 


California, Nevada, 


Kearny 


Vista, Cal. 


I9)_ Di- 


Utah, Colorado, Ari- 






vision. 


zona, and New Mexico. 




Palo Alto, 


41st (old 


Washington, Oregon, 


Fremont 


Cal. 


20). Di- 


Montana, Idaho, and 






vision. 


Wyoming. 




Garden 


42d Di- 


Most of the Middle and 


Mills 


Citv, L. I., 


vision. 


far Western States. 




N.Y. 









After the men had finished their course 
of training in the respective cantonments 
they were taken to various ports on the 
Atlantic seaboard and shipped to Europe. 
In both England and France there were 
other instruction camps in which the men 
were taught more precisely the rudiments 
of war under the tuition of foreign officers 
fresh from the front and with years of ex- 
perience in actual battle. Of the methods 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



43 



»f transportation across the 
hree thousand miles of water 
vhich separated us from the 
eat of war I shall have more 

say in the succeeding chap- 
er. The instruction in the 
European camps was from the 
Aery first briefer than had 
>een planned. For our men 
lad hardly begun to arrive in 
ontinental Europe before it 
)ecame apparent that the need 
or their presence on the battle 
ine was already pressmg. As 

1 result just as rapidly as they 
:ould be given even a rudi- 
Tientary idea of their duties, 
:hey were pushed forward and 
heir education was completed 




American soldiers on a practice hike, marching through a typical French village 



n the harsh and bloody post-graduate school 
)f the trenches. 

In both England and France our troops 
vere greeted as though they were the saviors 
)f the nation. Particularly was this true 
n the latter country for there the situation 
lad been the more desperate and the ravages 
jf the Hun more frightful. One little French 
ieaport, St. Nazaire, which had for centuries 
Iragged out a humdrum existence as a port 
)f the third or fourth class, entered by no 
rreat ocean liners and far from the track of 
:ourist travel, was suddenly galvanized into 
imazing life and development. Great docks 
md breakwaters were constructed for the 
■eception of the ships bringing the Yankee 
"orces. Railroads were laid out and con- 
structed for direct connection with Paris 
md the battlefront. Camps capable of 
lolding 100,000 men were established. The 
j/illagers tried to learn English and the sleepy 
ittle sailors' town was quick to see the 
Dossibility of profit in the inundation of 
strangers and suddenly transformed itself 
nto a sort of Coney Island with amusement 
ind refreshment places on every hand. 

How the Americans adapted themselves 
:o the situation and to their new manner of 
ife was told most graphically by a friendly 
oreign observer in September of 1917 who 
vrote thus in an English magazine: 

The American troops in their billets, their camps, 
:heir training grounds, their rifle and gun practice 
grounds near the front, are already absolutely at home. 
The French villagers have adopted now a Franco- 
American language — sister tongue, though different, 
fo the now classic Anglo-French spoken for three years 



from Calais downward. The American troops have 
made themselves at home, have settled all their ar- 
rangements with businesslike finality, and are out to 
do their job thoroughly. Their bases near the front 
seemed to me already definitely organized. They are 
settled in villages, where they disturb the villagers by 
aggressive sanitation. They have abolished all dung- 
hills, to the old farmers' amazement and alarm. They 
have purified the water, cleaned up the streets, cottages, 
and farmyards. The villagers, at first terrified by these 
wild measures, are now reconciled, and every little 
village grocery sells American matches, American 
tobacco, American groceries, sterilized milk, "canned 
goods," American mustard, and everything American 
except American whisky. For at the messes, where I 
was received with open arms as an ally of to-day and 
forever — no American officer makes any doubt about 
that — cold American purified water and French coffee 
with American sterilized milk are the only drinks. 
Villages of France have become American, and Ameri- 
can cafe au lait colored cars and motor bikes with 
side-cars tear all over the country driven by university 
boys turned chauffeurs. 

Our new allies are learning from us both — from us 
old allies, English and French. I first saw a French 
division in horizon blue teach the new American Army, 
in khaki and wearing British trench helmets what a 
modern battle is like. It was a moving sight. It was 
poignant, really, when one heard that the French divi- 
sion had just come back from Verdun and was enactmg 
over again in play what it had just done in terrible and 
glorious earnest. The American Staff stood on a knoll 
watching, with the French Staff explaining. On the 
edge of the hill to the left of the staff the new American 
Army watched. Further to the left the French troops 
came on. Every "poilu" among them had just come 
from the real thing. He grinned as he played at war 
this time, and one felt how he must enjoy playing at it. 

The lines advanced in open formation, then stopped 
for the barrage fire to be pushed forward. Flares were 
sent up to signal to the artillery. There was another 



44 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



stop forward under barrage fire, another (sham) 
barrage tire, more flares and rockets, the liorizon-blue 
bne crept cautiously around to take the first trenches, 
the macliine-gun parties came up. One more barrage 
fire and more signals, then the boche trenches below 
us were taken. 

It was all exactly as it would have been in real war. 
The American troops understood and appreciated 
keenly. Who would not.' These play-actors in the hol- 
low at our feet had just come from the real tragedy, and 
had fought and won, but had paid the price of victory. 

The American soldier (officers told me) understands 
the manoeuvre well. The officers find that their men 
are quick at grasping individual field work, i. e., make 
admirable noncommissioned officers with initiative, 
enterprise, and intelligence. French officers, many of 
whom speak English perfectly, while several American 
officers I met speak very good French, give enthusi- 
astic and intelligent assistance. French and Americans 
are not much alike in method or by temperament. 
I heard a French officer describing a battle with 
perfect technical accuracy, but also with dramatic 
expressiveness and with the literary sense. An Ameri- 
can officer immediately translated the French into 
American, and it was American — short, sharp, almost 
crackling with crisp Americanisms. It was the same 
battle described, but the difference in the descriptions 
was delightful to note. Differences are nothing. The 
French are keen to teach, the Americans, if possible, 
keener still to learn. 

British instructors and American pupils understand 
each other equally well. I never was more amused, 
pleased, cheered, and bucked up than by watching 



British Sergeant instructors training American officer 
cadets. Imagine a typical British Sergeant, with 
three years of war behind him and with seven or more 
years of British military training before that, spending 
every ounce of his energy, every particle of his keen- 
ness, and every word of his vocabulary teaching young 
Americans what they will have to do in a few months' 
time, and the young Americans using every muscle of 
their bodies, all their alertness, and all their keenness, 
too, to make themselves ready for the fight that all 
are yearning to be in. 

Parties of American officer cadets dug line upon line 
of sham trenches, killed dummy boches on the way, 
dashed through four lines of trenches, dug themselves 
in at the last, and began instant rapid fire at more boche 
targets. "Advance!" said the Sergeant. A second 
later "Go!" and the young chaps leaped out. "Kill 
'em sweet and clean! Clean killing is what we want!" 
shouted the Sergeant. The young Americans were 
at the dummies and each dug his dummy with a wild 
"Yah!" or college yell or scream. "Go on!" roared 
the Sergeant; "there are more boches beyond. Clean 
killing is what we want." And the Americans charged 
at several more lines of dummies before they leaped 
into the front trench and began firing. 

Before the war ended more than 1,500,000 
young Americans shared in this Hfe of the 
foreign training camps. Let us consider 
the way in which the Government performed 
the herculean task of taking them across the 
3,oOQ mile barrier of the tossmg Atlantic. 




American troops in Chateau-Thierry which has since become one of the worlil-tamous sites ot the war 



C H A P T ER III 



THE LACK OF SHIPS THE INTERNED GERMAN FLEET EFFORTS TO DISABLE 

IT THE VOYAGE OF THE TRANSPORTS— LOSSES BY ATTACK OUR NAVAL 

PORTS IN FRANCE A TRAINING CAMP IN ENGLAND INSTRUCTION IN REAL 

WAR FIRST DAYS IN THE TRENCHES THE FIRST AMERICAN DEAD 




G 



lIVEN an 
army of not 
less than 
3 ,500,000 
men, which it was the 
mtent of the United 
States to raise and 
equip, and recog- 
nizing the fact that 
the fighting of this 
army would have to 
be done beyond seas, 
how was it to be car- 
ried to the field of 
battle? 

That was the prob- 
lem that confronted 
the authorities of the 
United States while 
the men were doing 
their bit with hard drill and preparatory 
work in the cantonments. For long years 
of neglect had reduced our merchant marine 
to proportions that were utterly ridiculous 
in the face of the existing emergency. 
Of our own resources we could not have 
taken 50,000 men a month across the 
Atlantic — and the least number that would 
comply with the need would be 250,000. 
England naturally was willing to help with 
her prodigious fleet, but her own troops 
from the colonies had to be ferried across 
and meantime the Germans were sinking 
ships at the rate of not less than half a 
million tons a month. Of course the remedy 
was to build new ships, but that took time 
and the enemy was beginning to exult over 
what he believed would be the permanent 
incapacity of our nation to get its soldiers to 
the front in season to be a factor in the war. 
He estimated the amount of tonnage afloat 
that would be needed for the transportation 
of each soldier to France and his maintenance 
fhere at six tons, and asked with some degree 



of reason where in the world the United 
States could secure this twelve or fourteen 
millions of tons before Germany had brought 
the war to a victorious end. 

What was done by this nation in this crisis 
was one of the finest examples of organized 
and efficient effort the world has ever seen. 
Ships were needed. "Very well, we will 
build them," was the response of the nation. 
The Emergency Fleet Corporation was cre- 
ated by Congress with a capital of $50,000,000 
and the work begun. Ship yards were es- 
tablished all over the United States. Con- 
tracts were let to private bidders. Public 
yards were speeded up. There was a long 
controversy over the question of whether 
only steel ships should be built, or some 
part of the construction should be of wood. 
A compromise was effected, but in the end 
the greater part of the tonnage was of steel. 
Ships were built on the Great Lakes, of pro- 
portions that would permit their passage 
through the docks of the Welland Canal, or 
were of such size that it was necessary to 
cut them in two and tow the sections through 
the canal and to a point below the rapids of 
the St. Lawrence, there to be put together 
again and steam bravely out to sea. After 
half a century in which the need for internal 
development had diverted the attention 
of the people of the United States from the 
ocean-carrying trade, in which they had 
once ranked first, the stern demands of war 
once again lured them upon the ocean and 
they determined to reassert their old su- 
premacy there. 

We had ready to hand a very considerable 
nucleus of a fleet of transports in the ships 
belonging to German companies which had 
been interned in our ports at the outbreak of 
the war. There were eighty-seven of these, 
representing a total of more than 500,000 tons. 
Greatest of all was the liner Vaterland, 
which, when taken over by the United States, 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




The FiiU-rlaiid, rechristcned the Lti-ialhai:, carrrL-d ahiKist lo.coo soldiLis t-ach 



to h"ht Gemianv 



was rechristened the Leviathan. This, the 
largest merchant vessel in the world, of 
54,cx»o tons was, like many other of the 



German ships, treacherously crippled by her 
crew by the destruction of vital parts of the 
machinery. But although in the case of this 
great ship alone the repairs cost 
no less than $1,000,000 they 
were swiftly made by American 
mechanics — though the Ger- 
mans had boasted that she 
could be repaired nowhere but 
in her home port — and she was 
set afloat to carry more than 
10,000 American soldiers abroad 
on each trip to give battle to 
her former owners. Her con- 
tribution in all was 94,195 fight- 
ing men landed in France. By 
charter, purchase, and con=- 
struction the American Govern- 
ment ultimately acquired so 
great a fleet that when the 
armistice was signed we had 
transported morethan 2,500,000 
men across the ocean. 

It was no slight task to begin 
with to get the men from the 
cantonments which were scat- 
tered the length and breadth 
of the land to the waiting ships. 
Boston, New York, Philadel- 
r,,j^«*rf phia, and Newport News were 
„ ^,. , f — : — ' the chief ports whence troops 

Committee on Public Information 1 • j 11 1 1 

Interior of boiler of S. S. Pommm,, now U. S. S, Rappahannock, showing how were shipped, although Other 
the German crew melted the boiler by dry firing seaports were occasionally used. 




UNITED-STATES 

Near the principal sailing ports 
were great concentration 
camps, such as Camp Merritt, 
in New Jersey, near the port 
of Hoboken. To these camps 
the men about to sail were 
brought from all over the coun- 
try. There was very little 
ceremony about it all. For 
pomp and martial display this 
was the least picturesque of 
all wars. Mustered in their 
home camps at early dawn, 
marched without music to 
waiting troop trains, trans- 
ported in crowded day coaches 
across half the contment m 
many instances, without 
crowds to speed them on their 
way the boys despatched about 
the business of fighting the 
Hun must have felt a lamen- 
table lack of romance about 
the circumstances attendant 
upon their departure. 

While every possible effort was made to 
conserve the health and comfort of the troops 





A latecomer being sworn in at the pier just before the trans- 
port sailed 



I Public Information 

The wrecked engine room of the German ship which became the U. S. S. George 

IVashin'ton 



en route the troop trains at best were but a 
dismal form of travehng. Each had its 
kitchen car in which the company cooks 
practised their art, and food was plentiful 
at regular hours. At fixed periods along the 
line, if the journey was a long one, the train 
was stopped and the men mustered outside 
for exercise. In the main, however, the 
journeys were uneventful and uninteresting, 
and the thousands of our people who rnay 
have wondered at the loud shouts with which 
a loaded troop train greeted every station 
at which there was sign of life may have 
conjectured that the only variety that 
attended the soldiers' journey was an occa- 
sional chance to yell. 

Meantime at Hoboken, or some other 
port, the ships destined to carry the troops 
speeding thither from across country were 
being prepared. The transports were manned 
in the main by members of the Naval Re- 
serves, patriotic boys, often college students 
who volunteered for that service early in the 
war. The thousands of young men in this 
service were the very pick of our youth, and 
it is hoped that the experience of seafaring life 
they enjoyed during the war may encourage 
many of them to take up as a life profession the 
American merchant marine which it is beheved 
will be established on a prodigious scale as a 
result of the fleets built for war purposes. 



48 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Wives and sweethearts, friends and relatives at the pier saying those final words, so commonplace and yet so moving, to their 
boys setting forth for the great adventure on one of the first transports to leave our shores 




© International Film Service 

This illustrates the spirit in which our boys set out to "lick the Huns." They came back with the same spirit even though 

wounded 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR' 



49 




Some of the first of our soldiers marching up the gangway mi to the ocean terry which was to land almost two and a half million 
of them on foreign soil before the victory was won 







Photograph from London Daily Mirror 
A German submarine commander showed the customary German respect for the property and lives of unoft'ending neutrals by 

.setting afire in .raid ocean this neutral ship 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



SI 







^^"^^ T^^«lg|2^---: 




Photograph from London Daily Mirror 

British destroyers are hurrying to the rescue .of the surviving victims of this submarine atrocity where the Germans did not 
succeed in hving up to their ideal of "sinking without a trace" 



The transports were steamships of every 
sort. Only a very fev^^ had been built es- 
pecially for this purpose because the United 
States had had httle need for moving 
troops about the world except to her colonies 
in the Phihppines. Most of the transports, 
therefore, were liners that had been adapted 
to this use. Some were among the most gor- 
geous of the ocean palaces which were 
stripped of their tapestries, paintings, and 
decorative features, fitted with bunks and 
set to the stern duties of war. Many had 
been owned by our foes. Besides the Ger- 
nan ships already mentioned 14 Austrian 
ships aggregating about 70,000 tons were 
:aken by the federal government. The skill 
with which the German sailors had secretly 
ATecked the machinery of their ships, acting 
ipon instructions from their government, 
nade their immediate use impossible. As a 
result of the first survey made after the 
seizure the American engineers declared 
that it would take at least 18 months to 
complete the necessary repairs. Germans 
^xultingly insisted they could not be re- 
paired at all outside of Germany. They 



failed to take into account American in- 
genuity and efficiency. In fact, all the ships 
were made ready for service within nine 
months. But at first the machinery and 
vitals of these vessels presented a sorry 
spectacle. Valves had been thrown over- 
board, pipes cut and the sections removed, 
bolts, nuts, and other articles had been dropped 
into the machinery where they would do 
the most hurt, and bearings had been filled 
with emery to cut them as soon the engines 
might be started. In certain ships explosives 
had been secreted in the engines with the 
idea that on starting them up they would 
blow everything, including the new engineers, 
to pieces. It was all a piece of Hun fright- 
fulness and destruction very carefully worked 
out. The way in which the engineers of the 
United States navy grappled with this me- 
chanical chaos and reduced it to order, in 
many cases so improving the engines of the 
ships that they made several knots an hour 
in our service more than they had before, 
was a triumph of professional skill. Of 
course when put into our service the names 
of the German vessels were changed with 



UN 



ITED STAIES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES 




S. S. Antilles of the U. S. Army transport service arriving at a French port laden with American troops. She vpas later sunk 

on a return voyage by a German submarine 



:he exception of three that, by a delicate 
ittention, the Huns, before they went war- 
mad, had named George Washington, Presi- 
dent Lincoln, and President Grant. The 
Prinz Eitel Freidrich, a raider which had 
escaped from its British pursuers only by 
(running into Hampton Roads, was renamed 
Baron DeKalh and took the very first de- 
tachment of American troops to France. 
The Kronprinzessin Cecelie, which at the 
opening of the war was on her way to Europe 
with a large shipment of gold for Germany 
and which turned and fled into Bar Harbor, 
was renamed the Mount Vernon and was 
badly damaged, though not sunk, as the 
result of a torpedo wound inflicted by her 
former owners. 

As each transport filled up with its quota 
of precious human cargo, it was moved 
from its pier to a previously assigned anchor- 
age in the bay, safe behind the submarine 
net stretched across the harbor's entrance. 
A ring of ever-watchful cruisers and de- 
stroyers surrounded the gradually mcreasing 
number of transports. In a way, perhaps, 
these few days of anchorage were the most 
difficult of the whole trip. With land in 
sight on all sides, with the high towers and 



at night the bright fights of Manhattan, 
suggesting all the joys of the country's 
metropolis, with nothing of any real impor- 
tance to do, and with what seemed unending 
delays to the start for France, it was at times 
hard for this crowd, eager to get nearer to 
the enemy, to reconcile itself to the utter 
impossibility of either getting shore leave 
or of being off" on the road to war and glory. 

However, the day of days at last arrived. 
The embarkation was completed. The squad- 
ron, divided into several groups, each with 
Its own escort of destroyers and cruisers, 
passed through the Narrows and before 
many hours had gone was on the high ocean. 
The various groups separated, each travelling 
a diff"erent route, and though they might come 
in sight of each other on the way over more 
than once they were not to meet again until 
they all had safely reached that port "some- 
where in France." 

Life aboard the transports soon settled 
down to more or less of a routine. For the 
first few days many of the men, most of whom 
had never been on salt water before, had 
neither strength nor desire enough to do any- 
thing. They were experiencing their first 
taste of the great joy killer of the briny deep; 



54 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



seasickness. But being in tip-top condition 
and leading the most regular of lives they 
quickly recovered and again began to take 
interest in life and in "chow," especially in 
"chow." It was a good thing that a paternal 
government had provided tons and tons of 
food. For, once over the seasickness, every 
soldier boy seemed to make it his chief object 
in life to make up as quickly and completely 
as possible for whatever meals he had 
missed. 

Besides eating there were plenty of other 




© Western Newspaper Un 

The internal mechanism of that dreaded modern instrument of destruction, a floating mine 



things to do. All the "passengers" suddenly 
became one great strident body devoted tor 
many hours ever^' day to the difficult task' 
of acquiring a speaking knowledge of French. 
Not all France ever held as many varied 
"patois" of its musical tongue as could be 
heard any day on any of the transports. 
Then there were boxing bouts every night i 
during which the participants got their fair 
share of exercising their muscles, while the; 
spectators would make valiant efforts to 
regain for their tongues that stability which' 
they must havcL 
lost during thein 
French linguistic 
studies. 

Of course 
there was more* 
serious work to< 
be done, too,' 
now. Setting-upi 
drillmorning, 
afternoon, and 
evening kept the 
soldiers from 
goingstale, while 
the naval crews 
never once let up 
preparing for 
possible sub- 
marines by fre- 
quent gun prac- 
tice. All hands, 
officers and men,i 
both military 
and naval, tookl 
part in frequent 
fire and life boat 
drills. A certain 
number of men, 
too, were as- 
signed each day 
to stand their 
share of watch- 
ing for subma- 
rines. Many a 
keen and eager 
military eye; 
would report a 
periscope which 
upon closer in- 
spection by 
someone more ac- 
customed to the 
sea and its flot- 
sam would prove 



UNITED STATES 



to be nothing 
more danger- 
ous than a log 
or a barrel. The 
manoeuvres of 
the group units 
and of the naval 
escort fur- 
nished another 
source of con- 

iderable in- 
terest. 

The twelfth 
day usually the 
convoy entered 
it he danger 
jzone. Interest 
iwherever it had 
ibegan to lag 
immediately 
became renew- 
ed. One of the 
escorting ships 
wigwagged 
jthat in a few 
hours the trans- 
port was to 
make rendez- 
vous with some 
additional de- 
stroyers that 
had come from 
oneofournaval 

ases in France to meet us 




U. S. transport Neptune and utiier American troop ships arriving at Bou 



And almost at 
the exact time appointed there hove into 
sight three United States destroyers. Added 
ito the escort which had come all the way 
across, they made such a formidable pro- 
tection, that even a small squadron of sub- 
marines would not have had much of a 
hance. 

Soon after their arrival came that day's 
boat drill. The life boats now were swung 
to the level of the promenade deck rail and 
were lashed there. Portable steps were 
placed before each boat all along the deck. 
The destroyers were continually cutting in 
and out amongst the transports. Lookout 
^as kept even more carefully and by larger 
numbers of men. Reports of suspicious 
lookmg objects increased in proportion. 
But nothing happened. 

The convoy was now within a day and a 
half's journey from port. Long before that 
time was up the French pilot had come 
aboard and brought the ship into port. 



There, stretched out in the quaintness and 
beauty of western France, lay the country 
whose men, women, and children had for four 
weary years fought the battle of liberty. 
And how those of them who were compara- 
tively fortunate, inhabiting that small corner 
of valiant France far from the "battle front," 
greeted this latest force from their mighty 
sister republic across the wide ocean! Cheer 
upon cheer rang out as each transport came 
in sight. The Stars and Stripes were to be 
seen everywhere, on houses and in the hands 
of the people who somehow never missed the 
arrival of a single transport, no matter how 
little official news there was to be had about 
its arrival. 

As the boats proceeded to their anchorage 
the bands struck up the "Star-Spangled 
Banner." The boys in olive-drab stood at 
attention and so did all the French, man, 
woman, and child. Renewed cheering broke 
out as soon as the music had stopped. A 
few moments later that other tune of liberty 



S6 




rench marines in company with two 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 

death toll was 
large, amount- 
ing to 204. The 
boat almost im- 
mediately after 
h a \' i n g been 
struck keeled 
over at a dan- 
gerous angle 
which preven- 
ted the launch- 
ing of most of 
the life boats 
on the port 
side. Of the 
few that were 
launched some 
capsized. In 
spite of the 
quite apparent 
danger the 
American 
troops aboard 
conducted 
themselves 
with great 
calmness and 
discipline. In 
all, 2,179 officers and soldiers, consisting of 
National Guardsmen from Michigan and 
Wisconsin, with part of the first Forestry 
Engineers and three Aero Squadrons chielly 
from New York, were aboard the ill-fated 
ship. 

The Oronsa, with only 250 men aboard, 
was sunk on April 29, 1918. Three of the 
crew were lost. Two transports were sent 
to the bottom in May, 1918. On the 24th 
the British S. S. Moravia was sunk in the 
English Channel and 55 out of the 500 men 
aboard laid down their lives. On the 31st 
the former Hamburg-American liner. Presi- 
dent Lincoln, of 18,168 tons, one of the largest 
of the German ships taken over by the 
United States Government, was attacked 
some 600 miles out of a French port on her 
return to the United States. Though she 
was sunk, assistance arrived so quickly that 
only 27 lives were lost. 

Another large former Hamburg-American 
liner, the Covington (formerly Cincinnati^, 
of 16,399 l^ons met the same fate on July i, 
191 8, off the French coast. Fortunately she 
carried neither troops nor passengers. But 
6 members of her crew made the supreme 
sacrifice for their countrv's libertv. 



General Pershing on his arrival at Boulogne reviewing the 

French generals 

dear to every loyal French heart and to every 
freedom-loving heart the wide world over, 
the "Marseillaise" sent forth its thrilling 
notes, accompanied by the stirring voices of 
the natives. 

Not all the transports had as uneventful 
a passage as the group whose journey from 
the United States to France has been de- 
scribed. The first loss suffered by the trans- 
port service was the sinking of the former 
liner Jntilles. Though under convoy she was 
attacked by a German submarine on October 
I, 1917, while returning to the United States 
from France. Sixty-seven men, most of them 
wounded soldiers, went down with her. 

The second, and unfortunately much more 
serious loss, was the sinking of the former 
Anchor liner Tuscania. This boat, then 
under charter to the Cunard line, formed 
part of the British fleet employed in assisting 
in the transportation of the United States 
forces. W ithin sight of the Irish coast, and, 
though guarded by convoy, she was attacked 
by a submarine in the early evening of 
February' 5, 1918. The torpedo struck the 
finer amidship. Though British destroyers 
came to her rescue immediately and only a 
short time later British trawlers arrived, the 



I 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



57 



September 6, 191 8, the British S. S. Persic, 
with 2,800 U. S. troops aboard, was at- 
tacked 200 miles off the Enghsh coast. 
Badly damaged she managed to keep afloat 
and was finally beached without any loss 
of life. The attack was one of the most 
venturesome in the history of submarine 
warfare. Not only was the Persic one of a 
large group of transports, but she was also 
heavily guarded by destroyers and war- 
ships. One of the former, it was reported 
unofficially, sent the submarine to the bottom 
of the sea. 

The last and the most costly loss on the 
open sea was suffered when the transport 
Otranto, one of a group of transports under 
strong convoy, collided during the night of 
October 6, 1918, with the British P. & O 
liner Kashmir in the North Channel between 
Ireland and Scotland, off the bleak Island of 
[slay. A very high sea was running and a 
dense fog added its share to the difficulties 
reared by the collision. Though destroyers 
lid their best to assist the unfortunate vessel 
m^'' its unhappy load of soldiers and sailors, 
the weather doomed many a brave man to 
ieath who, under more favorable conditions, 
night have been saved. The Otranto was 
ashed to pieces on the sharp rocks of Islay 
nd so were many of the life boats. Of 



699 men aboard 372 were drowned or missing. 
Many of these succumbed to the exposure 
they had suff^ered before they were rescued. 
Though the place and conditions in which 
the collision happened were horrible enough 
to break the courage of the stoutest heart, 
once more American valor and discipline as- 
serted themselves. From all sides it has 
been testified that both those who lived and 
those who died acted with the utmost courage 
and self-control. 

One other boat, the former Hamburg- 
American liner America, was lost to the 
transport service, at least temporarily. On 
October 15, 191 8, while lying at her dock in 
Hoboken, N. J., almost ready to sail and 
already having some 300 soldiers aboard, 
she suddenly began to sink and before long 
was resting on the bottom with only her 
superstructure visible above the water. Three 
of her crew were lost, but the rest as well 
as all the soldiers were saved. The "acci- 
dent" was due to the treachery of German 
sympathizers. 

The transportation of United States forces 
to Europe was a task remarkable not only 
for the surprisingly small percentage of 
losses suff^ered at sea, but also for its magni- 
tude. The first ship carrying military per- 
sonnel sailed on May 8, 1917, having on 




OiBcial visit of Mr. Sharp, Aiui-ni-aa Auibasbadi 



01 tu r rancL, tu . 



I 1 11, h Official-Pictorial Press 

uau m luadquaitLib at the front 



58 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




© l-,.mniittcc on Public Information 
A typical scene in a French port where American transports are docking. Sleepy and picturesque little ports like St. Nazaire 

became among the busiest in the world 



board Base Hospital 4 and members of the 
Reserve Nurses Corps. The Commander- 
in-Chief of the U. S. Expeditionary Force, 
General Pershing, and his staff, sailed on 
May 28, 1917, landed in London June 8th 
and arrived in Paris June 13, 1917. 

From then on an ever-increasing flow of 
troops, regulars, National Guards, and Na- 
tional Army men, with their various different 
special service detachments, soon began to 
indicate that the United States would before 
long surpass the most optimistic expectations 
in respect to the number of troops which 
could be sent every month. Official em- 
barkation figures announced by the Depart- 
ment of War are: 



July . , 
August 
September 
Oct. I -2 1. 



306,185 
290,818 
261,415 
131,398; 



Total 1,994,287 • 

Marines 14,644 1 



2,008,93 1 



1917 May . 
June . 

July . 

August 
Sept. . 
Oct. . 
Nov. . 
Dec. . 

1918 Jan. 
Feb. . 
March 
April . 
May . 
June . 



,718 

;,26i 

12,988 

323 
523 
259 
016 



18, 
32, 
38, 

23: 

48, 
46, 
48: 
83. 
117. 
244, 

276, 



776 

,027 

811 

212 

34S 
372 



The greater part of our forces which went 
direct to France were landed at either Brest 
or St. Nazaire. The latter which was ex- 
clusively an American port of landing had 
been prior to the war a little, sleepy French 
hamlet at the mouth of the Loire, with a 
good harbor, but off the lines of trade so ' 
that it had never more than a fishing fleet 
and a few tramp steamers to accommodate. 
The Americans descended upon it and made 
it one of the great harbors of the world. 
Enormous concrete breakwaters and docks 
were built. Warehouses to accommodate 
food and raiment for a city of half a million 
people were there. Railroads were built 
into the interior, and railroad sidings covered 
broad acres of what had been rural country. 
Millions upon millions of dollars were spent 
in construction work, while the money spent 
by our soldiers who began coming in by 



UNITED STATES 



THE GREAT 




The arsenal at Brest where the Fourth Division of the U. S. Fleet twice visited during the war 



le scores of thousands soon began to make 
le thrifty French peasants feel as though 
ley had encountered the days of an El 
)orado. 

They were quick enough to grasp the 
jpportunity. The little shops in the narrow 
j:reets were suddenly multiplied an hundred 
)ld and began the sale of goods of a sort 
ever dreamed of in that village. They 
3 say that some of the souvenirs and articles 
ith that unmistakable Parisian air which 
ir soldier and sailor boys eagerly snapped 
p were manufactured in our own New 
5rsey and sent over to gratify our demand. 
jut that may be mere slander. At any rate, 
le United States made of St. Nazaire a 
isy mart of trade, a great shipping and 
j.ilroad centre, and multiplied its population 
^)out i,ooo per cent, in a few months. One 
■'jOnders what will be its destiny now that 
■iie war is over. 

1 We established also training camps in 
]ngland where a portion of our men received 
tieir final instruction before going to the 
lont. An American writer has set down a 
{easing account of one of these which may 
lip worth quoting: 

As the visitor strolls through the sinuous streets 
c an ancient city of England he at once notices that a 
cange has come over this quiet place, for it is full of 



bustle and animation, and the English that is spoken 
is not uttered w'th the local intonation. Strange to 
say the voices are ihose of Southerners and the ear soon 
becomes accustomed to the drawl of the Marylander, 
of the Alabaman, of the Tennesseean and of the 
Virginian. Here and there one can detect the burr 
of the lowan and the Ohioan. 

If you address them they answer briefly and to the 
point. A few regulars there are — very few, they belong 
to that corps d'elite, the United States Marines. . . . 
The camp is merely a passing one, men come there 
after landing on British soil, and undergo a sort of 
quarantme for about a week, when they depart to be 
trained on French territory. 

"We don't mind staying here for the winter, but 
next Spring must see us off. We -lon't want to miss 
the big drive, and a big drive it is going to be next 
Spring. Cuba, the Philippines won't be in it with that 
drive," says a fine Marylander, a sergeant in the afore- 
said marines. The American officers are emphatic . 
and sincere in their praise of their British confreres who 
have helped, and are still helping them with zeal and 
chivalry. Our ofiicers are known as liaison officers, 
to the British Tommies they are "Elizas" — their best 
attempt to pronounce that French word. It is one 
more word to be added to what may be called the 
"Napoo" language or rather dialect. 

A stroll through the lanes of the cantonments com- 
pels the visitor to admire the way in which the British 
authorities have paved the way for our latest allies. 
A "pharmacy" where every day the boys can get a 
pill if they want one — "for in wartime a man can have 
a pill for a sore throat, a broken leg, or any other thing 
he thinks he has got," remarks the guide. An isolation 



6o 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




ward, two or three hospitals, "dry 
canteens, messrooms, bathroom: 
banks, and express company, club: 
chapels, everything has been pre 
vided. 1 he principal medical officf 
m charge relates an mterestmg b 
of statistics: "I saw long ago that w 
were going to come in fast and . 
went to work at once — 2,000 of u. 
that was the number then; 20,0c 
now." In a way the camp lool 
somewhat akin to a mining camp i 
Colorado with its huts as "banks. 
The only bank not to be found 
one wherein poker chips or dice at 
rattled. 

The first American troopi 
were landed in France i 
June, 1917. They came to 
land in which little had bee 
prepared for them. Though 
they came as strangers the 
were met with an enthusiast; 




Five thousand of the vanguard of America's army crossing Westminster Bridge after a memorable march through the cheerir 

throngs of London 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



6i 




Austrian and German prisoners digging sewers in an American camp under the direction of our soldiers 




terican mechanical and organizing enterprise soon made itself felt in France. This is an American built powder mill with 
If docks in the foreground. It was the largest in France 



62 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 









i-=-fe^fe 



The American Expeditionary Porce was aided in every possible way by the soldiers of trance. Here some poilus are helpi 

American Marines put up winter quarters 




Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, and General Pershing inspecting American 
warehouses in France 



welcome by the French peop 
who hailed them as savio: 
and as the implacable enemi( 
of the Boche. Within thn 
months a new complexion ha 
come upon the little towr 
which were made subject 1 
American occupation. Tob 
gin with the villagers we; 
amazed, and to some extei 
aggrieved, by findmg the' 
homes made the subject ( 
aggressive sanitation regul 
tions. The French village, fd 
all its picturesqueness, do 
not conform to those rules 
sanitation which have becom 
compulsory in the Americ. 
Army, and of which Surgec- 
General Gorgas has been tl 
great author and executor, 
was not long after the arrive 
of the "Sammies," as tb 
French for a time called oi, 
men, despite their protest 
before the dunghills whin 
from time immemorial h; 
been a decorative feature 
the front yards of Fren 
cottages had disappeared. T 
water supply was purified, ti 
streets and farmyards clean 
up. After the villagers h' 
become reconciled to the 
revolutionary reforms, tht 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 

took up most cheerfully the business of ex- 
tracting from the pocket of the American 
soldier the American dollar. If northern 
France had suffered cruelly from the in- 
vasion of the Boche and the devastation he 
had accomplished, southwestern France dur- 
ing the American occupation profited as 
never before m its existence. Everything 
that could appeal to an American soldier or 
sailor was for sale with the smgle exception 
of American drinks. That particular source 
of cheer was effectively denied our men at 
the front. 

Just outside of each village or cantonment 
was the field on which the newcomers were 
drilled in the art of war. Here they had in 
'the early days what at first was denied to 
those in training camps at home, instruction 
at the hands of men who had actually done 
what they were teaching the greenhorns to do. 

It was late in October, 1917, that the Amer- 
ican forces first came into conflict with the 
enemy. This does not mean that at that 
early date our troops were ready to take and 
hold a sector of the battle line, or to join 
in an assault of the enemy's positions. But 
^t that period began the practice of sending 

J T C t /i ■ -1 © Committee on h-ublic Information 

detachments of the American army into the These American soldiers in the training area in France are be- 
jtrenches and merging them with French or ing instructed in trench building by a veteran Scotch sergeant 





© Committi_(_ on Public Information 

ecause of their universal training in baseball, our national game, our "boys" easily learned and speedily excelled in the art of 

throwing hand grenades 



64 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




A British ArmyCiptain uistiucting inembei; 



uf an Aincncan machine gun cumpany in the 
Gun in a training camp in France 



© CommitteL- on I'.ihlir Information 

;e of the Vickers Lietit Machine 



British commands in order that they might 
see something of actual warfare. Naturally 
the points chosen were not those at which 
the firing was fiercest. And in this particular 
instance our soldiers were sent into the 
trenches in the neighborhood of the Vosges 
mountains not far from the line of Lorraine. 




("inmittL-L on Public Information 

A French soldier instructor showing an American how to protect himself with a single 
bag of sand 



They entered the trenches under cover ol 
the night, and being the first Americans tc 
reach the actual front were greeted by the 
French with a welcome that was no less heart} 
because owing to the proximity of the 
enemy it had necessarily to be silent. The> 
were gripped by the hands, hugged, and ever 
kissed on both cheek) 
after the French fasb 
ion, but somewhat tc 
American disgust. 

October 27th th( 
first shot was fired b] 
an American artilleris 
at the enemy. Then 
is a long stor\' of un 
preparedness behin( 
the fact that this mis: 
sile, discharged witlr, 
a certain degree o^ 
ceremony, though firei 
by an American artil 
lerv-man, had to bedij 
charged from a Frenc 
75, we having no gun 
of our own on the fielc 
History relates tha 
the gunner was rec 
headed, the shot wa 
loudly cheered, and th 



(I 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



6S 



shell case was sent as a trophy 
to President Wilson. History 
does not relate what damage 
the missile did in the enemy's 
lines. 

A night or two later the 
Americans on that sector had 
their first experience of the 
perilous invasion of No Man's 
Land. A dozen or more 
accompanied by French 
veterans who knew the ropes, 
equipped with hand grenades, 
rifles, revolvers, and trench 
knives, with their steel helmets 
firmly strapped on clambered 
over the top and set forth on 
their midnight excursion. 
After finding the gap in their 
own barbed wire, they wriggled 
along in the dark on their 
stomachs, stopping their prog- 
ress as now and then a flare 
from the enemy's lines lighted 
up the blackness, and patrolled 
thus the disputed territory 
ibetween the two lines of trenches. 




American soldiers resting beside the road on their way to the assault upon the 
Hindenburg Line 



There were 

no casualties in this first expedition. But a 
ifew days later, on the 5th of November, the 
Americans were destined to lose their first com- 
rades as prisoners to the enemy, while three 
were shot dead, being the first to fall under the 
jStars and Stripes on a European battlefield. 



The occasion was a raid made by a German 
force against a sector of the line held mainly 
by Americans. The latter occupied a salient 
which must have been carefully spied out 
by the enemy for they put down a barrage 
immediately behind it, preventing any re- 
treat by the occupying force, while with a 




n this beautiful spot in France well back of the de->aitjtid an i these American soldiers 
throwing hand grenades — m which they soon excelled 



beint instructed in the art of 



66 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



heavy artillery fire they cut away the wire 
in front. Then in overwhehning numbers 
they attacked. Many made their way into 
the American trenches and for a time there 
was hand-to-hand fighting in these deep and 
narrow gullies. Fragmentary reports by 
eye witnesses show how little the new soldier 
understands the art of such fighting. One 
of the wounded Americans said, "I was 
standing in a communicating trench waiting 
for orders. I heard a noise back of me and 
looked around in time to see a German fire 
in my direction. I felt a bullet hit my 
arm." It was not long, however, before 
Americans learned not to wait for orders 
when they heard the enemy descending upon 
their trenches. 

In this raid three Americans were killed, 
the first actually to fall in battle in this war. 
They were: 

Gresham, James B. (Corporal) of Evansville, Ind. 
Enright, Thomas F. (private) of Pittsburg, Penn. 
Hay, Merle D. (private) of Glidden, Iowa. 

Near a little village in Lorraine, and in its 



torn and rent churchyard, are three graves" 
each surrounded by a neat white fence with 
a wooden cross at the head. Here lie the first 
three Americans to fall in the war for democ- 
racy. With a guard of French infantrymen 
clad in their horizon blue, on one side, and a 
detachment of American soldiers on the other, 
with both the Tri-color and the Stars and 
Stripes [floating over the scene as a bugler 
played taps and minute guns were fired, the 
bodies of these first of our heroes were laid 
away. A French major-general spoke fitting 
words over the graves and ended his tribute . 
with this appeal and prophecy: 

"We will therefore ask that the mortal remains of 
these young men be left here, left with us forever. We 
inscribe on the tombs 'Here lie the first soldiers of the 
Republic of the United States to fall on the soil of 
France for liberty and justice.' The passerby will stop 
and uncover his head. Travellers and men of heart 
will go out of their way to come here and pay their 
respective tributes. 

"Private Enright, Corporal Gresham, Private Hay! 
In the name of France I thank you. God receive your 
souls. Farewell." 



I 




IE.' iL> ^^^^^'^^^^^.^tS^^^H 


jj^ii 




4"^ t^S 


^^M 




-^•■^ 




'-^IkSBI 


^^^^^^^t^^m^B^M 


f- ~^. 


.3^^^ 




wm^ji 



The first American infantry units to reach Picardy halted by the roadside on their march to the front 



J 



CHAPTER IV 



THE FIRST AMERICANS TO GO WORK OF OUR AMBULANCE CORPS THE 

COMMISSION FOR THE RELIEF OF BELGIUM OUR MEN IN THE FRENCH FOREIGN 

LEGION THE LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE OUR FIGHTERS IN THE AIR THE 

MARTYRS 




NO H I S- 
TORY of 
the United 
States in the 
Great War could be 
complete which failed 
to recount some of 
the deeds of those 
ardent young Ameri- 
cans who, while the 
President himself 
questioned and de- 
layed, offered their 
lives to the cause of 
democracy and of 
humanity. There is 
no nobler roster of 
war's heroes than 
that upon which are 
inscribed the names 
[of the young men who sacrificed their lives 
in France, whether as ambulance workers, 
aviators, or fighters on the battlefield, before 
their hesitant country had recognized its 
duty and come to their aid and to that of 
imperilled civilization. 

Earliest in the field were the volunteers 
for ambulance work, and of these easily 
first was Richard Norton, organizer of the 
American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps. 
Two months after the declaration of war 
in 1914 he had ten ambulances in the field, 
all manned of course by volunteers Hke 
himself. By the time the United States 
entered the conflict he had charge of more 
than one hundred cars. Doing somewhat 
similar work was the Field Service of the 
American Ambulance of which A. Piatt 
Andrew, a Princeton man, was organizer and 
director. Before the United States came in 
this organization had more than two hundred 
cars in service. 

Men died in the ambulance service even 
las they did serving the great guns, or leading 



the charge. To attempt the roster of all the 
devoted young Americans who thus gave up 
their lives for others would be indeed im- 
possible, but the stories of a few may stimu- 
late emulation in future wars — if future wars 
there have to be. 

Of Richard Hall, a young graduate of the 
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, a 
friend tells in the memorial volume "Friends 
of France": 

All this time as in all the past months Richard Neville 
Hall calmly drove his car up the winding, shell-swept 
artery of the mountain of war — past crazed mules, 
broken-down artillery carts, sweanng drivers, stricken 
horses, wounded stragglers still able to hobble — past 
long convoys of Boche prisoners, silent, descending in 
twos, guarded by a handful of men — past all the person- 
nel of war, great and small (for there is but one road, 
one road on which to travel, one road for the enemy to 
shell) — past abris, bomb-proofs, subterranean huts to 
arrive at the posies de secoiirs, where silent men moved 
mysteriously in the mist under the great trees where 
the cars were loaded with an ever-ready supply of 
still more quiet figures (though some made sounds), 
mere bundles in blankets. 

Hall saw to it that those quiet bundles were carefully 
and rapidly installed — right side up, for instance — for 
it is dark and the brancardiers are dull folk, deadened 
by the dead they carry; then rolled down into the 
valley below where little towns bear stolidly their 
daily burden of shells thrown from somewhere in 
Bocheland over the mountain to somewhere in France 
— the bleeding bodies in the car a mere corpuscle in the 
full crimson stream, the ever-rolling tide from the 
trenches to the hospital, of the blood of life, and the 
blood of death. 

At midnight Christmas Eve he left the valley to get 
his load of wounded for the last time. Alone, ahead of 
him two hours of lonely driving up the mountain. 
Perhaps he was thinking of other Christmas Eves, per- 
haps of his distant home, and of those who were thinking 
of him. . . . 

Matter, the next American to pass, found him by the 
roadside half way up the mountain. His face was 
calm and his hands still in position to grasp the wheel. 
. . . A shell had struck the car and killed him in- 



67 



68 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




The private residence of Mr. Paris Singer in Devonshire, England, which he gave to the authorities to be used as the American 

Women's Hospital 

stantly, painlessly. A chance shell in a thousand had dressing room. Worst wound was on his back but a 
struck him at his post, in the morning of his youth. glancing one. He will pull through. 



The whole world will long remember the 
heroic defense of Verdun by the French who 
swore a mighty oath "They shall not pass" 
and kept it in the face of the whole army of 
the Crown Prince. There were Americans 
there, too, and although not among the fight- 
ing corps their gallantry compares well with 
that of any poilu. Consider this story of 
the rescue of William Barber, an American 
ambulance driver, by a colleague identified 
long after as Walter H. Wheeler of Yonkers, 
N. Y. 

Fifth night. — Got to post O.K. Heavy traffic; 
firing; road stinking of dead flesh. On way back heard 
forlorn cry of Barber. Stopped and found him in 
arms of Frenchman by side of road. Nerves gone, 
so he couldn't talk straight. Car had been hit; he was 
wounded; pumping hell out of road ahead where his 
car was. He had crawled back; was afraid to let 
him wait. Dragged him into front alongside of me and 
made a dash; never drove so fast in all my life. Passed 
his car; whole back shot off and wheels gone. Got 
to last bridge and found artillery coming across in 
opposite direction. Crawled across one side on remains 
of a railroad track. Grabbed leading horses of a battery 
by bridle and jammed them over on one side of road; 
commanding riders to wait; must have thought I was 
an officer; because they did; hurried back and drove 
across. Got to headquarters O.K. and got Barber into 



And then there were the young Americans 
who, under the leadership of Herbert Hoover, 
fed for years the starving victims of German 
rapacity in Belgium. This is no place to 
describe the work of the Commission for 
Relief in Belgium. Whole volumes will 
yet be written on that topic and the tale still 
be left half untold. But a picturesque 
description of the nature of the work, from 
the pen of Professor Vernon Kellogg, one of 
Hoover's right-hand men, will not be out of 
place: 

Rice from Rangoon, corn from Argentina, beans 
from Manchuria, wheat and meat and fats from Amer- 
ica; and all, with other things of the regular programme, 
such as sugar, condensed milk, coffee and cocoa, salt, 
salad oil, dried fish, etc., in great quantities to be 
brought across wide oceans, through the dangerous 
mine-strewn Channel, and landed safely and regularly in 
Rotterdam, to be there speedily transferred from ocean 
vessels into canal boats, and urged on into Belgium and 
northern France, and from these taken again by rail- 
road cars and horse-drawn carts to the communal 
warehouses and soup kitchens; and always and ever, 
through all the months, to get there in time — these 
were the buying and transporting problems of the 
Commission. One hundred thousand tons a month 
of food-stuffs from the world over, in great shiploads 
to Rotterdam; one hundred thousand tons a month 



JO 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




\mencnn nurses in one 



: f the wards of the mihtary hospital, established by the French in the magnificent winter palace at Pau 



thence in ever more and more divided quantities to the 
province and district storehouses, to the regional store- 
houses and mills, to the communal centres and finally 
to the mouths of the people. And all to be done 
economically, speedily, and regularly; to be done, that 
is, with "engineering efficiency." 

It would be interesting to go more into 
detail concerning the work of the hundreds of 




I Ed. Jaqucs 

The Hadfield Ward of the Singer palace after its transformation into a hospital, 
with American nurses in charge 



young Americans who volunteered for service 
with Hoover. In most cases they were col- 
lege men — many of them Rhodes students 
at Oxford. The work was arduous, com- 
pelling great personal devotion and a high 
degree of tact and self-restraint. It is not 
at all surprising to learn that after what they 
saw in Belgium and France during their 
period of enforced neutrality 
most of these gallant lads 
gladly took up arms with the 
American army when the 
chance to fight was given them. 
It is appropriate here to tell 
the stories of some of the 
gallant young Americans who, 
long before their country 
recognized its moral obligation 
to come to the aid of the 
nations that were fighting for 
civilization against the Hun, 
had offered themselves for 
the cause of democracy. We 
have spoken already of Kiffen 
Rockwell and of Victor Chap- 
man, both of whom gave up 
their lives in thecourse of duty. 
Another was William Thaw, 
class of 191 5 at Yale, who 
enlisted in the famous Legion 
Etr anger e of France — the 
foreign legion that Ouida made 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



71 




The New York Ward in a Paris hospital with some New York girls as nurses and some New York hoys as patients 



famous in "Under Two Flags." He 
served in the Legion only about six 
months when he was transferred to 
the French aviation service. There 
he remained until the end, the only 
original member of the Escadrille in 
service at the time of peace. His 
description of Hfe in the Legion is 
illuminating as to the sort and condi- 
tions of society there encountered. 
A brief excerpt will be mterestmg: 

Talk about your college education, it 
isn't in it with what a fellow can learn being 
thrown in with a bunch of men like this. 
There are about 1,200 here (we sleep on straw 
on the floor of the Ecole Projessionel four 
Jeunes Filles) and in our section (we sleep 
and drill by sections) there is some mixture 
including a Columbia Professor, called 
Shorty, an old tutor who has numerous 
Ph. D.'s, M.A.s, etc., a preacher from 
Georgia, a pro. gambler from Missouri, a 
former light weight second rater, two dusky 
gentlemen, one from Louisiana and the other 
from Ceylon, a couple of hard guys from 
the Gopher gang of lower N.Y., a Swede, a 
Norwegian, a number of Poles, Brazilians, 
Belgians, etc. So you see it's some bunch. 
I sleep between the prize-fighter and a chap 
who used to work for the Curtiss Co. As 
for the daily routine it reminds me of the 
Hill School and then some; only instead of 
getting demerits for being naughty you get 
short rations and prison. 




Dr. Alexis Carrell of the Rockefeller Institute, who discovered, among 
other things, a drainage method which permits healing chemicals to be 
introduced into deep wounds. The method saved many lives during the 
war. Marvelous instances of his work in facial surgery were shown in 
motion pictures sent from France for use in our medical colleges 



72 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Mr. Piatt An<lrcw (centre) in charge of the American Ambulance Service in France, and some of the members of his staff 



Chapman too, gave a picture of life in the 
Legion. His story of one Christmas day 
is worth reading: 

Xmas in the trenches was interesting but not too 
exciting. Beginning the evening before "conversations" 
in the form of calls. "Boches," "Ca va," etc. In re- 
sponse "5o?( camarade" "cigarettes," ^'noiis boirons 
champagne a Paris." etc. Christmas morning a Russian 
up the Hne who spoke good German wished them the 
greetings of the season, to which the Boches responded 




An American hospital ambulance being loaded with woun 



that instead of nice wishes they would be very grateful 
to the French if the latter buried their compatriot who 
had lain before their trenches for the last two months. 
The Russian walked out to see if it were so, returned 
to the line, got a French officer and a truce was estab- 
lished. The burial ceremony performed, a German 
Colonel distributed cigars and cigarettes, and another 
German officer took a picture of the group. We of 
course were one half mile down the line so did not see 
the ceremony, though our Lieutenant attended. No 
shooting was interchanged all day ,...j last night abso- 
, lute stillness, though we were warned 
to be on the alert. This morning 
Nedim, a picturesque, childish Turk, 
began again standmg on the trenches 
and yelling at the opposite side. 
Besconsoledose, a cautious Portu- 
guese, warned him not to expose 
himself so, and since he spoke Ger- 
man made a few remarks, showmg 
his head. He turned to get down 
and — fell; a bullet having entered the 
back of his skull; groans, a puddle 
of blood. 

Another American in the 
Legion, though of French 
parentage, was E. Morlae, who 
wrote of its American mem- 
bers in the Atlantic Monthly 
thus: 

Even the Americans were not all 
of one stripe. J. J. Carey had been 
a newspaper artist, and Bob Scanlon, 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




American Ambulance Field Service, Section No lo, the cars and equipment tor which were given bv the New York Stock Ex- 
change. This picture was taken just before the Section's departure tor the Near East 



a burly negro, an artist with his fists in the squared ring. though no longer an undergraduate, was 

Alan Seeger had something of the poet in him. Dennis just out of Harvard when he enlisted. He 

Dowd was lawyer; Edwin Boligny a lovable adven- i -n j • \^ i. i c -c • j ivT 

turer. There was D. W. King, the sprig of a well- ^as killed in the battle of Fortin de Navarin, 

known family. William Thaw of Pittsburg, started in September, 1915. No better description 

with us, though he joined the flying 

corps later on. Then there were James 

Bach, of New York, B. S. Hall who hailed 

from Kentucky, Professor Ohlinger, of 

Columbia, Phelizot who had shot enough 

big game in Africa to feed a regiment. 

There were Delpenche and Capdevielle, 

and little Trinkard from New York. 

Bob Subiron came, I imagine, from the 

states in general for he had been a 

professional automobile racer. The Rock- 

ville brothers, journalists, signed on from 

Georgia; and last though not least was 

Friedrich Wilhelm Zinn, from Battle 

Creek, Mich. 

It will ever be to the glory of 
our American colleges that in the 
early days of the war so many of 
their young undergraduates went 
to the war under foreign flags, 
despairing of the entry of their 
own country upon a conflict which 
so enlisted the sympathies of gen- 
erous youth. One of these in the 
Legion, though not listed by 
Morlae, was Henry W. Farns- 
worth, of Dedham, Mass., who, 




William P. Fay of New York (left) as an ambulance diiver visiting a first- 
line trench 



74 



UNITED S'l'ATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES 



of a night patrol in No Man's 
Land has ever been written 
than this of his: 

The patrol is selected in the 
afternoon. At sunset we meet to 
make the plans and tell every man 
his duty; then at dark, our pockets 
are filled with cartridges, a drawn 
bayonet in the belt, and our maga- 
zines loaded to the brim. We go 
along the boyau to the petite paste 
from which it is decided to leave. 
All along the line the sentinels 
wish us good luck and a safe 
return, \nxht petite paste Vftc\-imp 
on the bayonets, blow noses, clear 
throats, and prepare for three hours 
of utter silence. At a word from 
the chief we form in line in the 
prescribed order. The sentries 





U. S. S. Jason which carried to France the eighty 
carloads of Christmas presents 



Christmas presents being hoisted aboard the U. S. S; Jaso7i for 
the boys "over there" 

wish us luck for the last time, and the chief jumps up 
on the edge of the trenches, and begins to work his way 
quickly through the barbed wire. Once outside he dis- 
appears in the beet weeds and one after another we 
follow. 

Then begins the crawl to the appointed spot. We go 
slowly with frequent halts. Every sound must be analyzed. 
On the occasion of the would-be ambush I admit I went 
to sleep after awhile in the warm, fresh clover where 
we lay. It was the adjutant himself who woke me 
up with a slight hiss, but as he chose me again the 
next night he does not seem to have thought it a serious 
matter. 

Then, too, once home, we do not mount guard all the 
rest of the night, and are allowed to sleep in the morn- 
ing; also there are small but pleasing discussions of the affair, 
and above all the hope of some night leaping out of the dark- 
ness hand to hand with the Germans. 

"Alan Seeger," wrote Legionnaire Morlae, "had 
something of the poet about him." The world 
outside the trenches came to learn how true 
was the poetic sentiment that animated this 
young graduate of Harvard who gave his life 
for France. His lines: "I have a rendezvous with 
Death," became perhaps the best known of all 
the real poetry that the war inspired. His 
prose too, was of the best. The accompanying 
quotation gives a clear idea of the dismal life of 
the trenches: 

This style of warfare is extremely modern and for the 
artilleryman is doubtless very interesting, but for the poor 
common soldier it is anything but romantic. His role 
is simply to dig himself a hole in the ground and to 



76 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



keep hidden in it as tightly as possible. Con- 
tinually under the fire of opposing batteries, he is 
yet never allowed to get a glimpse of the enemy. 
Exposed to all the dangers of war, but with none 
of Its enthusiasms or splendid tian he is condemned 
to sit like an animal in its burrow and hear the shells 
whistle over his head and take their little toll from his 
comrades. 

The winter morning dawns with gray skies and the 
hoar frost on the fields. His feet are numb, his canteen 
frozen, but he is not allowed to make a fire. The 
winter night falls with its prospect of sentry duty, 
and the continual apprehension of the hurried call to 
arms; he is not permitted to light a candle, but must 
fold himself in his blanket and lie down cramped in 
the dirty straw as best he may. How different from 
the popular notion of the evening camp-fire, the songs 
and good cheer! 



And of those other gallant and .sacrificial 
}oung Americans for whom this soldier and 
poet of the Legion fitly sung the last sad lay: 

There was Edmond Genet, great great 
grandson of the Citizen Genet whom the 
Revolutionary government of France sent 
to this country in 1792 as its minister. In 
the third generation the French blood still 
told and young Genet, nineteen years old 
and already having seen service in the 
United States navy, enlisted first in the 
Legion Etrangere and afterwards in the 
American Escadrille where he met his death. 
He had foreseen his fate. "I expect to have 
to give up my life on the battlefield," he 
wrote, "I care nothing about that. Death 




Refugees being moved from Flushing, Holland, to Middlesbrough, England, in order to relieve the congestion at Flushing 



Seeger was indeed a true poet — the poet 
of the trenches. He wrote for himself, as 
for Chapman, for Farnsworth, for McCon- 
nell, for Prince, for Genet, for Poe of the 
Black Watch and for Starr of the Coldstream 
Guards the best of all epitaphs in his "Ode 
in Memory of the American Volunteers Fallen 
for France": 

And on those furthest rims of hallowed ground 
Where the forlorn, the gallant charge expires. 
When the slain bugler long has ceased to sound, 
And on the tangled wires 
The last wild rally staggers, crumbles, stops. 
Withered beneath the shrapnel's iron showers — 
Now heaven be thanked we gave a few brave drops. 
Now heaven be thanked, a few brave drops were ours. 



to me is but the beginning of another life — 
sweeter and better. I do not fear it." In 
a letter written just after the reelection of 
President Wilson, an eVent which because of 
the nature of the campaign that had been 
waged was thought by those abroad to 
presage the continuance of American neu- 
trality, Genet expressed the bitterness felt 
at our national attitude by the brave youths 
who had rushed forth at the first call of 
France for aid: 

It couldn't be possible for Americans in America to 
feel the same bitter way as Americans over here among 
the very scenes of this war's horrors. It's incompre- 
hensible over there where peace reigns supreme. 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




American beans arriving to save the lives of the 

Come over here and you'll be engulfed like the rest of us 
in the realization of the whole civilized world arming 
itself against this intrusion of utter brutality and mili- 
taristic arrogance. Peace — God forbid such happiness 
iuntil the invaders have been victoriously driven back, 
jbehind their own borders, knowing the lesson of their 
folly in treading ruthlessly upon unoffending neutral 
territory and all the rest of their deeds of piracy, and 
Jail the blood of France and Belgium has dried up. 

'! Neither the Legion Etrangere nor the 
French Army engaged the allegiance of all 
jthe young Americans whose 
[spirit impelled them to take 
ipart in the fight upon Prus- 
jiianism long before their 
'nation was willing to take 
i:hat step. French aviation 
ittracted many, and out of 
:he Escadrille Lafayette, 
khich first engaged the en- 
deavors of young American 
■iviators, grew the Escadrille 
l\mericaine. The British 
\rmy, too, found favor with 
nany of our youth. Most 
)f these were mute if not 
nglorious — gallant young fel- 
lows who made their way 
i)ver the Canadian border 
jind enlisted in the Canada 
iToops that did such mag- 
lificent service on every bat- 
lefield from the North Sea 



le Ljeiiiians 



to the Dardanelles. History will in time 
perhaps do justice to these gall'ant volunteers 
who, on being asked by recruiting sergeants 
from what province of Canada they came, 
smilingly replied "Texas" or "Missouri" or 
"Kentucky." Of some of those who were 
able to go direct to the front and enlist in 
English regiments some historical record 
already exists. 

Among these latter was John P. Poe, 
class of '95 at Princeton, known first to 




ans interned in Holland arriving at Flushing 



7S 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




© London Daily Mirror 

Nine of the ninety little Belgian refugees from Louvain who were guests of Mr. Walter 
Chamberlain on his estate, Harborne Hall, in England 



the college football world as "Johnny" Poe, 
and afterward extending that fame and carry- 
ing his endearing diminutive to Cuba, the 
Philippines, and about every Latin-American 
republic which offered him a chance to serve 
either for or against a revolution. The 
European explosion of 1914 gave Poe his 
great chance, and before the end of that 
year he was enrolled in the Coldstream Guards 
— an historic regiment of Highlanders with a 
record of a century and more of fighting 
inscribed upon its rolls. "I am trv'ing to 
feel more at home in a kilt," wrote Poe to a 
friend at this stage in his career, "and while 
they are cool the legs get dirty for quite a 
way above the knees." Poe was a fighter 
rather than a writer, and of his all too brief 
service in the Black Watch, or the "Ladies 
from Hell" as the Germans called the kilted 
troops, little record is left. He was killed 
in a charge near Bethune in the latter part 
of September and lies buried on the battle- 
field. 

In the same command with Poe and like 



him fated to meef! 
death fighting under a!| 
foreign flag was 
Dillwyn Parrish Starr, J 
of Philadelphia, a Har- 
vard man and like Poe 
a football player of 
note. His foreign ser-- 
vice began in the. 
American Red Cross ^ 
ambulance service, buti 
like hosts of the young; 
men who began with 1 
that purely humane 
part in the war he 
found his blood raised I 
to fighting heat by 
what he saw and he: 
soon entered the; 
British armored cart 
service. He served in 1 
Flanders and later ini 
Gallipoli and has leftr 
a graphic account ofi 
the battle of Achi Baba i 
in which he partici- ■ 
pated: 

Well, the attack has been 1 
made and was a complete ; 
failure here. Almost four r 
thousand men went out ' 
and very few came back. 
Some monitors and ships bombarded Achi Baba ; 
for two hours. The Turks during this moved down 1 
into a gully and came back after it to their second 1 
line and massed four deep to meet our men. 
I was on higher ground with four guns and could ' 
clearly see our charges of the 6th and the morning of ' 
the 7th. The men went out in a hail of bullets and 
it was a wonderful sight to see them. Many of them < 
fell close to our parapets, though a good number 
reached the Turkish trenches there to be killed. On 1 
the morning of the 7th, the Turks made a counter 
attack and drove our men out of the lightly held 
trenches they had taken. Our guns fortunately took 
a lot of them; my two guns fired a thousand rounds 
into their closely formed mass. 

In a long record of gallantry and self- 
sacrifice all comparisons are futile and 
offensive, but I think that in days to come 
the people of America will learn to look 
upon the brilliant and daring youths who 
in the first days of the war formed the 
Lafayette Escadrille that young Americans 
might fight together for France in the air 
formed the very best of our contribution in 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



79 



payment of our debt for Lafayette and 
Rochambeau. 

The story of the foundation of that his- 
toric flying battle corps is told by one of its 
two surviving members, Elliott C. Cowdm, 
who ascribes all credit for its creation to 
Norman Prince, a Harvard graduate of the 
class of 1908. Cowdin thus describes its 
begmnings: 

Norman Prince had spent many years, and made 
many friends in France, and felt it his privilege and 
duty to serve her in the hour of her need. . . . 
; Knowing there were many Americans in the Foreign 
: Legion and the various ambulance units, and being one 
' of the pioneer aviators of the United States, he con- 
I ceived the idea of forming an aero squadron, composed 
! exclusively of Americans, to join the French Army. 

It was a difficult task. Most Americans 
resident in Paris refused to have anything 
ito do with the project lest they violate the 
1 neutrality rulings of their own country. 
The French Government was indifferent. 
Its officials declared they had more would-be 
1 aviators among their own people than they 



could provide planes for. But with perti- 
nacity Prince overcame all obstacles, and, as 
Cowdin writes: 

Early in May (1916) we were all mobilized at the 
Alsatian front as the "Lafayette Squadron" with 
French officers, Captain Thenault and Lieutenant de 
Laage in command. The original members, besides 
those officers, were: Norman Prince, William Thaw, 
Victor Chapman, and Kiffen Rockwell of the Foreign 
Legion; James McConnell, who had already done good 
work in the American Ambulance before joining the 
French Aviation; Bert Hall and myself. Five of the 
original nine have been killed at the front. 

The American loss was in fact five out of 
the original seven for the two commanding 
officers were French. First to go was Chap- 
man of whom mention has been made more 
than once in this narrative. James McCon- 
nell who witnessed one of his later battles 
tells the story of it thus: 

I remember one curious incident that occurred while 
I was in the Verdun sector. Victor Chapman, who was 
domg combat work with the American Escadrille, 







Underwood & Underwood 

The Germans driving 314 men and women between the ages 15 and 60 out of the village of Guiscard, France, to place them 
g{ at forced labor in Germany. They include practically all the skilled workmen of the village 



8o 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



after a brush with four German aerophines was forced 
to descend to our field. Not only had he received a 
bad scalp wound from a bullet, but his machine had 
been riddled and nearly wrecked. One bullet had even 
severed a metal stability control. By all the rules of 
aviation he should have lost control of his aeroplane 
and met with a fatal accident. But Chapman was an 
expert pilot. He simply held on to the broken rod 
with one hand, while with the other he steered the 
machine. This needed all the strength at his com- 
mand, but he had the power and the skill necessary to 
bring him safely to earth. A surgeon immediately 
dressed his wound, our mechanics repaired his machine. 
The repairs completed he was off and up again in pur- 
suit of some more Boches. I must say that everyone 
considered hmi a remarkable pdot. He was absolutely 
fearless and always willing and able to fly more than 
was ever required of him. His machine was a sieve of 
patched-up holes. 

Chapman's head was bound up with ban- 
dages covering the wounds received in that 
very conflict when a few days later he was 
killed. He was not on duty, but high in 
air was returning from a visit to a distant 
hospital whither he had been to carry some 
oranges to a wounded colleague. In the 
distance he saw three planes holding his 
friends Captain Thenault, Prince, and Luf bery 
sore beset by six Germans. Without hesita- 
tion he dived to the attack. His friends 
at the moment did not know he was there. 
All they knew was that two of their assailants 
hastily disappeared, and beating off the others 



they returned to their field. When Chapman, 
too, taded to return inquiry was made and 
another pdot who had seen the fray from a 
distance reported that while the three Nieu- 
ports were attacking si.x Germans he saw a 
fourth Nieuport come up with all possible 
speed, dive into the thick of the Hght, and 
then suddenly fall to the ground as though 
out of control. In that machme flying fast 
to the aid of his friends was Victor Chapman. 
A chance shot brought him down. What bet- 
ter word could have been spoken of his supreme 
sacrifice than that uttered by the Prime 
Minister of France, M. Briand, who said he 
was "the living symbol of American idealism." 
Norman Prince, who had created the squad- 
ron, died in an accident — not the death that 
he would have chosen for he was eminently a 
fighting aviator. In his last expedition he 
downed his fifth Boche, thus qualifying as 
an ace. It was on the return from this 
exploit that his machine, landing in the dark, 
struck a wire and he sustained fatal injuries. 
Before this he had figured in IZ2 engagements, 
was officially credited with having brought 
down five of the enemy, and had four others 
to his credit but not officially recorded. 
He had won the Croix de la Guerre, the 
Medaille Militaire, and the Croix de la 
Legion d 'Honneur. But his greatest glory 
in history will be that he created the Lafay- 
ette Escadrille. 




Liifhery, the famous American ace, from Wallingford, Conn., in his Nieuport, not long before he fought his last battle 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Lawrence Scanlon, of Long Island, fell 500 feet and crashed through tiic luuf of the bakuiy of the 
Avord and emerged from the debris entirely unhurt 



ch aviation school 



James McConnell, of North Carolina, 
served first in the American Field Ambulance, 
and, being stirred like so many young Ameri- 
cans by the atrocities of which the enemy was 
gudty, went into active service against the 
foe in the Escadrille. He was to a great 
degree the historian of the flying corps, his 
book "Flying for France" being the best of 
all contemporary contributions to the litera- 
ture of the air. As an example of his literary 
style this extract from a letter written while 
he was still in the ambulance service may 
well interest: 

Ogilvie got his car and we got our stretchers out to 
take away the blesses. There were a few of us grouped 
about, some seven or eight — and near — with the 
wounded just put on stretchers, when — Bang! Bang! 
Bang! — three more shells. 

We had already thrown ourselves on the ground, and 
then findmg we were still alive, feverishly loaded the car. 
"Good God! I've stalled it!" said the driver — then 
the cranking — would it never start — try again — thank 
Heaven it was off. Hardly thirty seconds after, whish- 
sh-bang! bang! Two more came. We retired to a 
cellar for a few minutes as the three dead could stay 
there while it was so terribly dangerous. At last we 
emerged and were about to lift Mignot's body when 
both arms moved. Was he alive, after all.'' No, it 
was only the electric wires he was lying on that had 
istimulated his muscles. The car turned the corner 
with the three dead, and we ran back to the caserne. 
:\ There we found the rest of our Section very shaken 



indeed. A shell had burst just outside of the house 
where the nine were making merry and the violence 
of the impact had hurled all of them to the ground. 
Two feet nearer and the whole lot would have been 
killed. 

At the time of McConnell's death Edmond 
Genet, to whom reference has been made, 
was flying with him. He tells the story of 
how the body of the lost air-fighter was 
found : 

Jim M'Connell has just gallantly earned a lonely 
grave out beyond the present fightmg-lines. I wrote 
to you last Tuesday — the day he and I were out to- 
gether, when we had to return, wounded, without 
him, and with no definite news of him. Since then the 
Germans were forced back further and finally French 
troops came across a badly smashed Nieuport with 
the body of a sergeant pilot beside the ruins. All 

identification papers were gone, and the d d Boches 

had even taken off the flying clothes, and even the boots, 
and left the body where it had fallen. The number of 
the machine was sent in and so we knew it was Mac's. 

The following morning, after a flight over the lines, I 
spiralled down over the location given and found the 
wreck — almost unrecognizable as an aeroplane, crushed 
into the ground at the edge of a shell-torn and wrecked 
little village. I circled over it for a few minutes and 
then back to camp to report. Our captain flew over 
that way the same morning to see about the body. 
When he returned he told us about the clothes and shoes 
having been stolen, and said that Mac had been buried 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




James R. McConnell, the American ace who lost 
his life flying for the French and who was the author 
of a book entitled "Flying for France" 

beside the road next to which he had fallen. There 
is no doubt but that he was killed during the combat 
in the air, and the machine crashed down full speed to 
the earth. Since that day I've chased two Boche 
machines but could get up to neither, but I'll get one 
yet and more than one, or be dropped myself to avenge 
poor Mac. 

Poor Genet himself fell a little more than 
a month later, and was the first aviator to die 
after the United States entered the war. 

King of the American aces was Raoul 
Lufbery, of Wallingford, Conn., an American 
by birth and a Frenchman on his mother's 
side. He had been something of a soldier 
of fortune for years and had enjoyed some 
flying experience before joining the Lafayette 
Escadrille. He developed extraordinary skill 
as a fighting pilot, and at the time of his 
death was credited with having brought 
down eighteen enemy planes. The Croix 
de Guerre, the Medaille Militaire, the Croix 
de la Legion d'Honneur, and the Military 
Cross for Distinguished Services, a British 
decoration, were all his. Though not, like 
so many of his associates, a college man, 



Lufbery had, like most of the flyers, a knack 
of writing well about the service that he 
loved. In Everybody' s Magazine he gave a 
description of a raid in which he took part 
as pilot of a huge Voisin plane. The objec- 
tive was the Metz-Sablon railway station: 

A few minutes later I found myself over the spacious 
station of Metz. This was our objective. The ma- 
chine in front of me executed a semi-circle in order to 
give the slower aeroplanes a chance to come up. Handi- 
capped by my 140 h.p. I took no part in this manoeuvre, 
but flew straight to the pomt where I was first to arrive. 

Our coming must have been announced as several 
enemy machines came from every direction to meet us. 
One of them turned toward me. Quickly I turned my 
head to see if my observer was on guard. His machine 
gun was pointed at the enemy, his finger on the trigger. 
At a distance of one hundred and fifty metres, the enemy 
machine made a brisk movement to get beyond our 
range, turning to enable its gunner to fire at us. But 
this manoeuvre was useless for the greater number of 
the bi-plane machines have two guns, one stationary, 
which fires from the front, the other mounted on a 
turret in the rear. 

I kept my eye on my adversary. I could clearly see 
the black painted cross on his fusilage and helm. The 
fight began. We exchanged a shower of bullets. The 




Piatt Andrew, Director of the American Ambulance 
Field Service in France 



UNITED STATES 

Boche piqued, apparently having 
had enough. I did not think it 
worth my while to follow him, as 
there was nothing now to obstruct 
our way, and I had an important 
mission to fulfil. 

Through the wind shield I could 
distinguish railroad tracks, trains, 
stationary and on the move, stores 
of goods, hangars, etc. 

My observer tapped me on the 
shoulder and signed for me to go 
ahead. Another tap informed me 
that all the bombs had been drop- 
ped. Our mission was accomplished. 
All that remained for us to do now 
was to get back to camp as soon 
as possible. The Boches were 
hurrying up in numbers. We had 
to keep a watch on all sides. We 
were surprised by a monoplane 
Fokker which hurled at us a shower 
of bullets and departed before we 
had time to respond. Two or three 
short, sharp familiar sounds told 
me my machine was hit. But my motor continued 
its regular throb, and my observer reported that 
the gasoline tank was untouched. 





James Norman Hall, another great American avi- 
ator, who helped to make America's famous air 
record in France 



Norman Prince, who also gave his life flying for France 



The wind blowing from the north facilitated our 
return. In a short time we were over our lines. Then 
I laughed without knowing why. I looked at my ob- 
server and he, too, laughed. We were both feeling 
good. 

Lufbery attained the rank of Major in the 
American Squadron but was not destined 
to survive the war. In May, 1918, in a battle 
over the city of Toul with a huge German 
machine, his machine was seen to burst into 
flames and his body was thrown out. He 
was of course killed instantly. A comrade, 
Kenneth P. Copeland, in a letter home told 
of the funeral services and I quote his closing 
words: 

He was given a full military burial; with the salutes 
of the firing squad and the two repetitions of taps, one 
answering the other from the west. General E. made 
a brief address, one of the finest talks I have ever 
heard any man give — while throughout all the cere- 
mony French and American planes circled the field. 
In all my life I have never heard taps blown so beauti- 
fully as on that afternoon — even some of the officers 
there joined the women in quietly dabbing at their 
eyes with white handkerchiefs. France and the 
United States had truly assembled to pay a last tribute 
to one of their soldiers. My only prayer is that some- 
how, through some means, I can do something as much 
for my country before I too wander west — if in that 
direction I am to travel. 

The next day the writer of these touching 
lines himself fell in combat with the Boche. 



UN 



ITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




WiUian, Hohenzollern, the deposed Kaiser of Germany, and the most notorious criminal in the world 



CHAPTER V 



MILITARY OPERATIONS DURING THE FIRST YEAR OF THE PARTICIPATION OF 

THE UNITED STATES IN THE WAR THE FIGHTING ON THE WESTERN FRONT 

THE TANKS GERMAN ATROCITIES IN FRANCE THE ITALIAN FRONT — THE 

DISASTER ON THE ISONZO VENICE IMPERILED THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAM- 
PAIGN TAKING OF JERUSALEM HAD THE ALLIES LOST THE WAR? 



WHILE the 
United 
States was 
thus gath- 
ering itself together 
in preparation for the 
plunge into the Euro- 
pean maelstrom there 
was no cessation in 
the fighting abroad. 
Rather was it pressed 
with greater vigor 
and desperation, for 
the Germans, 
although they scof- 
fed at the idea of the 
United States exert- 
ing a really com- 
manding influence 
over the war, never- 
theless exerted every 
endeavor to win a 
decisive victory be- 
fore our troops could 
be brought into 
action. The nations 
of the Entente Al- 
hance, on the other hand, seeing in the com- 
ing of the American troops the aid which 
would end in victory, set themselves to resist 
stubbornly all attacks, and to hold their own 
until that aid could be made effective. 

The cheering with which the people of the 
United States greeted their entrance upon 
the war had scarcely died away when the 
British began at Arras a tremendous offensive 
upon a wide front between Lens and St. 
Quentin. The battle line included the fa- 
mous Vimy Ridge, which dominates the 
plain of Douai and the coal fields of Lens — 
coveted objectives which the Allies were not 
destined to win for many long months. The 
battle then opened was one of the greatest 




of the war. The battle line was forty-five 
miles long. More than in any earlier action 
the airplanes, both those of the AlHes and 
enemy planes, were in evidence, scouting, 
bombing, and fighting among themselves in 
the midst of cold, snowy, and sleety weather 
most unseasonable for April. 

The first British attack, opened on April 9th, 
was made against positions which the enemy 
had held for two years, and which they had 
made, in their own estimation, impregnable. 
The belt of wire entanglements before their 
trenches was hundreds of yards deep, and 
indescribably tangled. It was against this 
form of obstacle that the newly invented 
"tanks" or land cruisers were most effective. 
These were automobiles, oftentimes the 
"flivvers" beloved of the American farmer, 
on which had been built a structure of steel, 
mounting usually three machine guns, or 
sometimes hght rapid firers. The tanks 
were propelled on "caterpillar wheels," or 
endless belts of jointed, flat platforms which 
revolved slowly, and carried the whole 
structure forward, on a road thus laid for it 
as it advanced. The car with its super- 
structure is about 23 feet long, by 9 feet 
over all, weighs about 20,000 pounds without 
armor, is propelled by 120-horsepower and 
makes from 2| to 5 miles an hour according 
to the ground it. must traverse. Because 
of the breadth of the steel plates upon which 
it moved the pressure on the ground is said 
to be less than that of the hoof of a horse 
or the foot of a man; accordingly soft ground 
or even mud interferes but little with its 
progress. The machine cannot tip over, 
it can descend one side of a trench and climb 
up the other at most incredible angles. It 
can break down trees, go through houses, and 
nothing short of a direct hit by a shell will 
put it out of action. Because of its power 
to plow through all obstacles the tank has 



8s 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



■ 


9 I 


fti^ 


/ '^HR^^^^^^H 


^HilW^ 


BIKi^ 


'•"M^H 


^^H^/ 1 


0^ 


-4F<^^ 


^^^IbIV 








K^^ 1 ' 


i^'^ ' 


F-'- |b, 




-J^F ' ^1 




"li» 


. M 


f l^MJ' 


^J '<<■ 


? ' '^5^5 


(r .^ral^Sy- 


mi 


my^' 


. ' ' ; ■' -'■'•^^ 


- i - 


ml 


n-'P 






Mj 


it^ " 


^■...- ^ ^1 




Wm 


Iw'^ 






4^9| 


m§$' 


*:*• 




Htf m ]§' K\ 


Ik 




mm F W r' 


lb- 




■^P^p ^ '>a ■/ %\' 


■JT ^. 


■'Sy .'» :_ 


K/#l^ 


K^^ 


IB 


H/Mfli'^ 


«L^| 






> 



UNlTiED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




These French artillerymen during the great German offensive in March, 1918, have just received from an aeroplane the signal 
of the enemy's approach and are rushing to man their gun 



been especially serviceable in breaking down 
entanglements of barbed wire. 

When they were first employed, these 
ungainly and powerful machines aroused the 
merriment of the men who marched by their 
side quite as much as the terror of those 
against whom their lumbering charges were 
directed. 

Philip Gibbs tells two stories of the opera- 
tions of tanks in the battle 
of the Somme: 



A "tank" had been coming along 
slowly in a lumbering way, crawling 
over the interminable succession of 
shell craters, lurching over and 
down, and into and out of old Ger- 
man trenches, nosing heavily into 
soft earth,- and grunting up again, 
and sitting poised on broken para- 
pets as though quite winded by this 
exercise, and then waddling forward 
in the wake of the infantry. 

Then it faced the ruins of the 
chateau, and stared at them very 
steadily for quite a long time, as 
though wondering whether it should 
eat them or crush them. Our men 
were hiding behind ridges of shell 
craters, keeping low from the swish 
of machine-gun bullets, and implor- 
ing the "tank" to "get on with it." 
Then it moved forward in a mon- 



strous way, not swerving much to the left or right, but 
heaving itself on jerkily, like a dragon with indigestion, 
but very fierce. Fire leaped from its nostrils. The 
German machine guns splashed its sides with bullets, 
which ricochetted off. Not all those bullets kept it 
back. It got on top of the enemy's trench, trudged 
down the length of it, laying its sandbags flat and 
sweeping it with fire. 

The German machine guns were silent, and when 
our men followed, the "tank," shouting and cheering, 




French iss's in action on the Oise River in France 



k 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




British and French troops awaiting the enemy in hastily constructed intrenchments during the last German offensive of 1918. 
This was just before the Americans came in numbers to the aid of their hard-pressed allies 



they found a few German gunners standing with their 
hands up as a sign of surrender to the monster who had 
come upon them. 

One of the most remarkable "tank" adventures was 
in the direction of Gueudecourt, where our troops were 
held up yesterday in the usual way — that is to say, by 




French and American officers during the Battle of Picardy making arrangements 
for American troops to take over a sector 



the raking fire of machine guns. They made two 
attacks, but could not get beyond that screen of 
bullets. 

Then a "tank" strolled along, rolled over the trench, 
with fire flashing from its flanks, and delivered it into 
the hands of the infantry with nearly 400 prisoners, 
who waved white flags above the 
parapet. That was not all. The 
"tank" exhilarated bjr this success, 
w-ent lolloping along the way in 
search of new adventures. It 
w-ent quite alone and only stopped 
for minor repairs when it was sur- 
rounded by a horde of German 
soldiers. These men closed upon 
it with great pluck, for it was firing 
in a most deadly way, -and tried 
to kill it. They flung bombs at it, 
clambered on its back, and tried 
to smash it with the butt-ends of 
rifles, jabbed it with bayonets, fired 
revolvers and rifles at it, and made 
a wild pandemonium about it. 

Then our infantry arrived, at- 
tracted by the tumult of the scene, 
and drove the enemy back. But 
the "tank" had done deadli' work, 
and between 200 and 300 killed 
and wounded Germans lay about 
its ungainly carcase. For a little 
while it seemed that the "tank" 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




ritish troops in the act of assaulting at La Boiselle in tranc 



also was out of action, but after a little attention, and a 
good deal of grinding and grunting, it heaved itself 
up and waddled away. 

In seven days' fighting before Arras the 
British gained five miles, took 22,000 prisoners, 
and 200 guns. It was in the course of this 
fighting that troops from our neighbor to 
the north, Canada, greatly distinguished 
themselves. Vimy Ridge, a vital strategic 
point, taken before by the French, and later 
by the British, only to be lost again', was 
gallantly carried by the Canadian troops. 
In their ranks were many 
men of United States citizen- 
ship who had wearied of 
waiting for this country to 
enter the war and had crossed 
our northern border to enlist 
with the men of the Domin- 
ion. One of these, a young 
Texan, who was wounded in 
the battle of Vimy Ridge, 
learning that the United 
States had at last entered 
the conflict, went up to the 
assault with the Stars and 
Stripes on his bayonet, and 
fell thus. It was the first 
appearance of our flag on a 
European battlefield. 
• The British fighting in this 
section was the more deter- 
mined because the soldiers 
had passed through the coun- 
: try devastated in Hinden- 



burg's retreat which began on March 1 6th, 
and had been able to see for themselves 
what German ruthlessness meant. The re- 
gion which the enemy ravaged was about 
40 miles long, and 25 deep. It had contained 
before the war between 350 and 400 towns 
and villages, and some 200,000 people. The 
Germans burned, blew up, or otherwise 
obliterated the towns and villages, and of 
the 200,000 human beings took nearly half — 
including thousands of women and young 
girls — into slavery. Banks and private safes 
were robbed of their money. Private homes 




A British raiding party getting clear of a sap and rushing toward the German 
trenches 



90 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




French artillerymen installing one of the 

were pillaged and burned from sheer lust of 
destruction. Even the little farmhouses 
and gardens of the peasants were ruthlessly 
destroyed. The savagery of the retreating 
Huns was shown by the fiendish zeal they 
manifested m destroying property that could 
have been of no use to a farmer. Portraits 
were hacked to pieces. Mirrors smashed 
with revolver shot. Filth defiled everything. 
Wells were poisoned. The trees of orchards 
W"ere girdled or chopped down. Men versed 



This : 



rush jub 




A French anti-air craft gun in action on the Oise in France 



ISS's on the Somme. 

in the Scriptures recalled that in Dueteronomy 
XX it is written: "When thou shalt be- 
siege a city a long time in making war 
against it then shalt thou not destroy the 
trees thereof by forcing an ax against them; 
for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt 
not cut them down (for the tree of the field 
is man's life) to employ them in the siege. 
Only the trees which thou knowest that they 
be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy 
and cut them down." But the Germans, 
though talking much of 
"Gott," gave little heed to 
sacred things. Churches were 
stripped of every valuable 
thing before being burned or 
blown to pieces. In some of 
the demolished towns the 
retreating Germans left notes 
to this eflPect : 

" You see zvhat we have done 
here. Well, this iswhat is going 
to happen all the way back to 
the French frontier." 

And in other places they 
were malignantly ironical. 
" Nicht argern; niir wundern" 
was the German legend that 
met the British in several 
places that seemed no longer 
to bear any sign of having 
been spots of human 
habitation. "Do not be an- 



I 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




A sample of some of the difficulties the Allied and American troops had tu overcome before they broke the Hindenburg hne 



noyed; only be astonished" was the mean- 
ing. 

A British war correspondent summed up 
the hellish destruction in a paragraph when 
he wrote: 



Even if we grant that the destruction of houses in 
the wake of retreat is the recognized cruelty of war there 
are other things I have seen which are not pardonable, 
even under that damnable code of morality. In 
Bapaume and Peronne, in Roye and Nesle and Liane- 
court, and all these places over a 
wide area the German soldiers not 
only blew out the fronts of houses, 
but with picks and axes smashed 
mirrors and furniture and picture 
frames. As a friend of mine said, 
a cheap] ack would not give four- 
pence for anything left in Peronne, 
and that is strictly true also of 
Bapaume. There is nothing but 
filth in those two towns. Family 
portraits have been kicked into the 
gutters. Black bonnets of old 
wornen who once lived in those 
houses lie about the rubbish heaps 
and by some strange, fitful freak 
these are almost the only signs 
left of the inhabitants who lived 
here before the Germans wrecked 
their houses. 



offensive on the Aisne. General Nivelle, the 
French Commander-in-Chief in April, 1917, 
pushed forward an attack on a 25-mile front 
between Soissons and Rheims. This was the 
southern pivot of the famous "Hindenburg 
Hne," the position of the impregnability of 
which the Germans long boasted, but which 
was broken more than once by the British and 
French before the final attacks under the 
dominant generalship of Foch m 191 8 smashed 
the whole hne out of any coherent shape. In 



While the British were 
pressing the fighting in the 
vicinity of Arras, the French 
were pushing forward their 




This is the kind of gun which made its appearance on the western front when the 
Allies caught up with the Germans in heavy artillery 



W A R 




French tanks awaiting repairs after having wrought great havoc among the enemy. Ihey were wounded in action 



this second battle of the Aisne the Crown 
Prince had nominal command of the German 
armies, and received from his Imperial parent 
a telegram of congratulations upon his"death- 
def\"ing perseverance and irresistible attack," 
and conveying to the soldiers assurance that 
"all who fight and bleed there shall know that 
the whole of Germany will remember their 
deeds, and is at one with them to carr\" 
through the fight for existence to a victorious 
end." 

The victorious end did not come then, nor 
indeed did it ever come, though in the early 
spring of 191 8 the Germans drove back across 
this same devastated territorv' for gains 
which brought them nearer to Pans than 
they had been since the opening weeks of 
the war, and set the whole Alhed world 
aghast with dread until a handful of American 




The tanks used by the British in the East made a new type of ship of the desert 



marines at Belleau Wood checked the onrush 
and turned back the Huns in a retreat 
that ended in ultimate defeat. 

But for the remainder of the 3-ear 1917, 
while America was striking her gait and the 
Atlantic fern,' was slowly carr\-ing our fighting 
men across to the fields of France, the British 
and the French pushed on the fighting in 
Flanders, along the Aisne and Ailette rivers, 
and at Verdun. Hard fighting it was, brave 
and bloody, but although the record week 
by week showed notable successes on the 
part of the Allies it was all in the end ineffec- 
tive, and without bearing upon the outcome 
of the war, except in so far as it wore down 
the German man-power to a point from which 
it was impossible for Germany to recover. 

In Italy the moment of the entrance of 
the United States upon the war found the 
Italians seemingly in secure 
possession of the Austrian 
stronghold of Goritzia, hold- 
ing the line of the Isonzo 
River, andthreateningTrieste 
on the one hand and the 
back door of Austria on the 
other. Yet this advance 
lagged during the summer 
months of 1917 to an extent 
which seemed scarcely ex- 
plainable even b}' the difficult 
character of the plain of the 
Carso over which they had 
to fight their way. That 
volcanic plateau was a deso- 
late waste of rocks and caves, 
destitute of water, and forti- 
fied at even,- point by the 
Austrian enemy who had in- 
stalled machine guns innu- 
merable, and batteries of 




The Italians in their mountain lines fought under appalling difficulties. The wounded men had to be lowered dovvn 
precipices, often more than a thousand feet high, to emergency hospitals or waiting ambulances below. The American 
Red Cross played a large part in Italy. 



WAR 




These tanks are awaiting orders. The 



lo-inchers by which the whole plain was 
swept. A long aqueduct, advancing with the 
troops, had to bej built to supply the Italian 
forces with water. 

Difficult though the terrain was it did not 
wholly explain the sluggishness of the Italian 
advance which early in June came to a 
complete standstill. The world did not 
know, though the headquarters of the Allies 
must have known, that the Italians were 
stopped, not by the valor of their enemies, 
but by the lethargy of their friends. Ca- 
dorna's army, which had advanced thus 
gloriously over almost unimaginable obstacles 
to the very doors of supreme victory, was 
suddenly experiencmg a severe shortage in 
all the supplies necessary to a vigorous cam- 



nunimuni tl" 



danger of observation 




This small Joh is a tank mascot. He has often been under fire 



paign. Cannon and the needed ammunition, 
rails for the extension of railroads and rolling 
stock to equip them, food, clothing, small 
arms, and the countless munitions necessary 
to keep an army in the field were running- 
low. Appeals were made to the Allies for aid, 
but the response came but slowly. Meantime, 
the Russian debacle had occurred and the 
Austrians, freed from apprehension from that 
quarter, were able to give their entire at- 
tention to Italy. Germany was freed from 
the Russian menace_ likewise and was able 
to add her aid. Yet it is a striking tribute 
to the Italian valor that neither the gallantry 
of one side nor the discouragement of the 
other caused the disaster which, in the 
autumn, overwhelmed Cadorna's forces. The 
reverse was due toGerman m- 
trigue, socialist propaganda, 
and the treachen,' of a com- 
paratively few Italians. 

The first news came to the 
world in the shape of reports 
that on October 24th the , 
Austro-German armies had 
burst through the Italian 
front in the Julian Alps and 
had crossed the Isonzo and 
were pouring down into the 
Venetian plain. As the news 
was amplified it appeared 
that the Second Italian Army, 
under General Capello, had 
for some inexplicable reason 
yielded to the enemy practi- 
cally without resistance and 
that the foe pouring through 
the gap thus caused had 
compelled the retirement of 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



95 



the whole Italian Army from the Cranio 
Alps to the sea. The fruit of three years of 
the most gallant fighting known during the 
whole war was thrown away in a day or two. 
Goritzia was sacrificed, the line of the Isonzo 
abandoned, the menace to Trieste was with- 
drawn, and suddenly Italy from being mag- 
nificently on the off'ensive found itself driven 
back to its own territory with the cities of 
her northern plain and magnificent Venice 
herself in danger of capture by the Huns. 
In one week the enemy had taken 250,000 



pacified front great bodies of troops and 
sent them into the JuHan Alps to aid her 
ally. That alone would not have accom- 
plished the sinister results that followed, 
for the Italian troops under any fair condi- 
tions were capable of coping with all comers. 
But at this moment they were sorely reduced 
in munitions of war and in no condition to 
resist an attack in force. To this fact was 
added the more sinister influences of dis- 
affection and intrigue. 

The spot chosen for the attack was on the 




Germans attacking a British tank This was typical of the dtsp( 

in spite of long- 
prisoners and 2,300 guns and there seemed 
no likelihood of stopping his progress. 

What was the reason for this colossal defeat 
suddenly inflicted upon an army which had 
been resting upon its arms seemingly secure 
in well-earned positions? 

Once more credit must be given to Ger- 
many for having turned the reverses of. her 
allies into victory. Her military leaders 
had no doubt contemplated with alarm the 
steady advance of the Italians and the con- 
tinued reverses of the Austrians, but while 
Russia remained in the field were unable to 
intervene. But with the withdrawal of the 
Russians the Germans withdrew from that 



;rate hand-to-hand fighting which wab so common in the war 
■range guns 

lines at Tolmino, Monte San Gabriele, and 
Monte San Daniele. General Von Biilow 
was in command of the German forces, with 
Germans commanding Austrian divisions. 
Austrian names had disappeared entirely 
from the list of those in high command. 
Before opening fire with their artillery the 
Germans put into effect the more subtile 
method of intrigue for breaking down their 
enemy's defense. An Italian authority ex- 
plains it thus: 

"Opposite the Second Italian Army the 
Austrians had placed regiments composed 
largely of Socialists, and these utilized the 
war-weariness of opponents, similarly in- 



96 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




These Italian troops having just reached the summit of a mountain are starting to attack the Austrians in an effort to dis- 
lodge them 



fected, to convince the latter that an end of 
the fighting would come if the soldiers on 
both sides should refuse to kill each other 
any longer. Fraternization followed, and an 
exchange of promises to do no more shooting. 
Then the demoralized — and demoralizing — 
Austrian division was withdrawn, and in its 
place were put German shock troops. These 




Vinceremo (we shall \vm)! After capturing this mountain top 
this sign with letters two yards high and illuminated 



it was that, almost unopposed, smashed 
through the Italian line and began the flank- 
ing movement of which the results have been 
so disastrous to Italy." ' 

It was not all German intrigue that caused 
this disaffection. There was only too much 
evidence that Italian Socialists, the followers 
of the discredited ex-Premier Giohtti, paci- 
fists, and even some agencies 
of the Vatican had worked to 
attain this discreditable end. 
Immediately after the disaster 
General Cadorna bitterly de- 
nounced the "treachery" — - 
using that word — of certain 
divisions, while the War Office 
in its bulletin made the dis- 
tinct charge of cowardice. 
But the harsh words were 
quickly suppressed by the 
censors, and the defeat allowed 
to pass as though caused by 
the enemy's superior force. 
The fact remains, however, 
that certain regiments in aban- 
doning certain strategic posi- 
tions did so apparently not 
because overcome by superior 
force, but cheering, singing, 
the Italians put up and giving every indication 
at night that they were deluded into 




UNITED STATES 

the belief that by their act 
the war would be ended. 

The gap opened by treachery 
on the 24th of October, 1917, 
was big enough to disorganize 
the whole Italian line and 
within three days the whole 
Italian Army was in retreat. 
It must have been a bitter 
moment for the gallant Italian 
soldiers. From the mountain 
peaks which they had carried 
by such engineering skill, in- 
dustry, persistence, and loss 
of life, through the narrow 
passes which they had pene- 
trated against the fire of the 
enemy's batteries on every 
peak and crest, they had now 
to retire with the exultant 
Austrians snapping at their 
heels. It was a mournful re- 
treat but an orderly one. 

By November ist the Italians had been 
driven from the Hne of the TagHamento, which 
they had fortified heavily and hoped to hold. 
They were short of artillery and of ammuni- 
tion. The enemy at this time reported the 
capture of 180,000 men and 15,000 guns. 
After another brief halt at the Livenza River, 
where, according to German reports, 17,000 
more prisoners and 800 guns were lost, the 
1 ItaHans fell back to the hne of the Piave. 

When the Taghamento had been passed 
by the Teutons the world 
suddenly awoke to what was 
happening. The Allied 
governments, that had looked 
complacently upon Italy fight- 
ing her own battles so long as 
she could fight them victori- 
ously, perceived that her defeat 
now was a menace to their 
whole cause. Not only would 
the Germans sweep down over 
the northern plains, taking 
Vicenza, Verona, and even 
glorious Venice for added 
counters in the game of brag 
and barter that would attend 
the final peace conference, but 
they might move to the west- 
ward and strike at France by 
the back door of the Riviera. 
With one accord France, Great 

Britain, and the United States Austrians in the Italian Alps, They went back quicktr than they came 



The Italians underwent herculean labors in getting great guns such as this on to 
the mountain tops 



rushed to the rescue. At last Italy's appeals 
were heeded. 

A triune command representing the Allies 
was created, and on this General Cadorna 
was given place, General Foch and Sir Harry 
Wilson being the other two. As supreme 
commander of the Italian forces in the field 
General Armando Diaz succeeded Cadorna. 

It appeared now for a time that the line 
of the Piave was to be to Italy what Verdun 
had been to France — a symbol of national 





Italian soldiers knee deep in snow rushing toward tlie enemy, ''"hey wear w'hite uniforms to render them inconspicuous 



determination to conquer. As in the case 
of Verdun the strategists said that the Piave 
was a Hne without true strategical impor- 
tance or strength. Occupation of it left the 
left 'flank resting on the mountains, a very 
perilous and insuflScient defense. Further 
south, pointed out the strategists, was the 
Adige River, a line along which would extend 
from Lake Garda to the sea, and be therefore 
impregnable on either flank. True, this 
would uncover Venice and probably lead to 
her capture, but Venice, while artistically 
and historically important, was without mili- 
tar\' significance. 

At this all Italy sprang to arms. Sacrihce 
Venice, the Queen of the Adriatic! Permit 
the Austrians to come back, to swagger again 
in the Plaza of St. Mark's after havmg turned 
them out? Never! All Italy decreed the 



m2f^ 



Transporting an Itahan gun across a chasm at a dizzy height by aerial ropeway 



Piave line, and adopted for its rallying cry 
"Da q^ti non se passe !", the equivalent of the 
French motto at Verdun, "They shall not 
pass!" Up too surged the hot blood of the 
Garibaldians of 1866 with their battle cry 
" Italia fara da se .'" 

Venice was in a panic, and indeed the whole 
world — to which the Adriatic city throned 
in state upon her hundred isles seemed a 
shrine sacred to all humanity — held its 
breath as it viewed the closer approach 
of the Huns to that treasure house of art and 
beauty. Curiously enough, it was the his- 
toric Huns under the ruthless Attila who, 
raiding northern Italy, caused its people to 
take refuge in the lagoons and islands whence 
in due time Venice uprose. Now after the 
lapse of centuries new barbarians were at the 
door of the city that had grown great, rich, 
and beautiful. No 
people reverence and 
appreciate more their 
art treasures than the 
Venetians. Perhaps it 
may be admitted that 
they have a lively sense 
of the material advan- 
tages these treasures 
bringtothem innormal 
times in the throngs of 
visitors from every 
land. From the ear- 
liest days of the war 
every imaginable pre- 
caution had been taken 
to preserve these trea- 
sures from possible 
injury. The horses of 
St. Mark's descended 
from their elevated 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



99 




Italian soldiers carrying building materials up a snow-clad mountain to build sheds above the clouds ; 



Station above the cathedral's portico and were 
taken to Rome, where they were comfortably 
stabled in the ruined baths of Diocletian. St. 
Mark's itself was banked about with sand bags 
within and without; though meticulous as 
were the precautions, they would have 
availed little against a single shell from a 
giant Austrian howitzer. To protect the 
neighboring Doges' Palace it was at first 
planned to build an entirely distinct struc- 
ture of brick around and over it. But en- 
gineers reported that the piles on which the 
Palace, like all the rest of Venice, stands 
would not support the additional load, so 
that project was abandoned, and the more 
exposed portions of the edifice banked up 
with sand bags. The statue of Colleone, 
esteemed by artists the greatest in the world, 
was covered by sand bags until the near 



approach of the Germans suggested that 
not merely destruction but theft needed to 
be guarded against, and it was lowered from 
its pedestal and shipped to Rome. 

So the Italians clung to the line of the 
Piave with a persistence that denoted real 
soldierly devotion. Though the enemy had 
broken over at Zenson, the gap he made there 
in the Italian lines was too narrow to be 
serviceable. On the lower river the Italian re- 
sistance could not be shaken. Floating de- 
fenses were employed with great skill. Not 
only were flat-bottomed English monitors of 
light draft and with the heaviest guns brought 
into service, but the Italians built floats on 
which they mounted powerful naval guns 
which drove the invaders away from the 
river banks. Early in November the Teutons 
began crossing the low delta of the Piave 



roo 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Courtesy Miss A. A. 
An Italian sentry at his outlook post in tbe mountains 

near its mouth. The movement was 
most menacing to Venice as it brought the 
enemy troops within twenty miles of that 
beautiful city — almost close enough for 
the Kaiser's guns to do what they had 
done to the cathedral at Rheims and the 
Cloth Hall at Ypres. 

But the line of the Piave was not the 
only danger spot for Italy. In the north 
the foe was coming down the passes of the 
Dolomites and the Venetian Alps with 
the intent of taking the Italian Piave line 
in the flank and rear. The movement 
which culminated in the later davs of 
November, 1917, was most menacing. 
The Teutons outnumbered the Italians 
by two to one — both in men and in guns. 
They suffered from but one weakness. 
For supplies and communications they 
were dependent on a single railroad to 
Trent and various highways through the 
mountain passes. A single snowstorm 
would interrupt supplies; a long period 
of stormy weather might be disastrous. 
Winter was upon them and the invaders 
pushed the fighting. During the week 
December 4th to December loth, he at- 



tacked fierceh' all along the mountain 
front, captured, according to Berlin, 
1 5,000 prisoners and seized some positions 
not without strategic value. 

But as the roar of the great guns and 
the rattle of the lesser arms died away 
came noiselessly through the air the deli- 
cate and feathery missiles that were to 
end, for the time at least, Austro-German 
exploits on that front. The srow, light, 
feathery, but insistent, came silently 
down, filling the mountain passes, block- 
ing the railroad, shutting oflF the invaders 
from their base. It was no time for fight- 
ing. The work of the army thus entrap- 
ped was to keep open its communications. 
During this interruption the relief forces 
sent by France and England to Italy's 
aid came up and on the last day of 1917 
delivered a crushing blow on the invaders' 
front. The Allies were everywhere suc- 
cessful, and the offensive passed from the 
Teutons to them. During the weeks 
immediately following there was spirited 
fighting in the air, fleets of as man}^ as 
twenty-five planes to a side being not 
infrequently engaged. But in the air, in 





I^H 


^^^Bf' 


^^^^^^1 


^^Hii 


' ^y^^^^^^H 


^^^Bi'^' 




^^^^^^^H' .^ 


^ 'Vt^^^^^l 




-"W^^M 








m^^^K^^i 




^H^^^^^H 




^■tafl 



Courtesy Miss A. A. Bernardy 

Italian guards protecting the entrance to a mountain tunnel 



I 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




An Italian convoy halted at a particularly beautiful spot on one of the famous mountain roads 



the flooded districts at the mouth of the course or driven out of Mesopotamia alto- 
Piave, and on land the advantage had now gether. They were sadly misled in their 
turned to the Allies and on the 8th of January, hopes. For without Russian or other aid 
191 8, headquarters reported that all danger the British, under the generalship of Sir 
to Venice was now averted. Stanley Maude and Sir Edmund Allenby, 

The year 1917 was notable, also, for the pushed on brilliantly to as complete a vic- 
successful operations 
of the British in Asia 
Minor, particularly in 
the Holy Land and 
Mesopotamia. During 
the summer the British 
advance in those 
regions had been stayed 
by the entire collapse 
of Russian endeavors 
in the Caucasus and 
about Lake Van be- 
cause of the Russian 
revolution. For a time 
the Turks and the Ger- 
mans thought that, be- 
cause of this abrupt 
termination of the 
Russian activities, the 
British would be either © London Daily MaU 

checked in their Italian Alpine troops known as the Alpini entrenched in an ice fort at Cadore, Italy 




UNITED STATFS IN THE GREAT WAR 




Jerusalem from the Mount of Oli- 



Marching troops now tread the quiet roads once trod by Jesus 



tory as was won on any front. It was the British marched on to Bagdad, the an- 
the only extended campaign of the war con- cient city of the CaHphs and the scene of the 
ducted by the troops of a single nation, and Arabian Nights Entertainments. This pic- 
it was absolutely conclusive in its results. turesque oriental town, brimming over with 
In February, 1917, General Maude recap- legends and history, was taken in March, 
tured Kut-el-Amara, that had been taken Thereupon the season for campaigning closed, 
by the Turks from General Townshend for in that latitude the scorching summer 
almost a year earlier. After this victory months put an end to military operations 

as did the winter months in 
Flanders and the north. It 
was, moreover, just at this time 
that Russia, which had been 
a helpful ally in the north- 
eastern provmces of Asia 
Minor, was suddenly stricken 
with impotence and it be- 
hooved the British com- 
manders to await develop- 
ments before undertaking a 
new campaign. 

Early in the fall, however, 
active operations were 
resumed and this time the 
advance of Sir Edmund 
AUenby from the Mediter- 
ranean coast engaged the 
attention of all observers. 
For while Maude had been 
fighting his way up the Tigris 
River and through regions 

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher where, according to tradition, the body of famed in Oriental tradition 
Jesus Christ was buried and in the books of the Old 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



103 



Testament, Allenby's field included many 
of the most important cities known to 
Holy Writ, and comprehended much of the 
territory called by Christians the Holy Land. 
November i8th he captured Jerusalem for 
which Christians and Moslems had striven for 
twelve centuries, with the result of its having 
been left until now in the possession of the 
Mohammedans. It was matter of general 
comment at the time that had the Germans 
instead of the Turks been in possession of 
Jerusalem, and had been driven out, they 
would have destroyed all the sacred vestiges 
of scriptural times in their malignancy, as 



637 and the Christian efforts for its recovery, 
known as the crusades, began in 1099 and 
were continued with intervals during the 
succeeding century. Poetry and romance 
have concerned themselves with its long 
history and the names of Godfrey de Boillon, 
Tancred, Saladin, and Richard Coeur de 
Lion are amongst those which have been 
immortalized with it. Now a British Army, 
aided by Arabs and East Indians, has re- 
deemed the Holy City from the grasp of the 
infidel and it is unlikely that it will ever again 
pass into Moslem hands. In the course of 
General Allenby's campaign we read of his 




i Illustrating Sei 

A market in the Holy Land to-day is exactly the same as was a market in the time of Christ 



in France and Belgium they took special 
pleasure in wrecking churches and cathedrals. 
The Turks, however, respected these relics, 
and indeed throughout this war the Enghsh 
officers, who were brought into collision with 
the soldiers of the Sultan, were unanimous 
in their declaration that the Turk was no 
foul fighter but a gallant and honorable ad- 
versary. 

For four thousand years Jerusalem has 
been a stake of war. No existing city has 
had so long or so turbulent a history. All 
the tribes and peoples recorded in the Old 
Testament fought for it, and as the power of 
Israel waned Persians and Tyrians, Babylon- 
ians and Macedonians, Greeks and Romans 
fought for it. The Moslems won it in A. D. 



taking the Philistine city of Gaza, of which 
Samson carried off the gates in the scriptural 
story dear to every schoolboy, and m later 
operations Bethlehem and Nazareth fell 
for the first time in centuries into Christian 
hands. 

The actual physical share in the war taken 
by the United States during the year 1917 
was inconsiderable. It may be said that 
the moral effect upon the Germans of the 
knowledge that they had now to deal with 
a new, fresh, and powerful adversary must 
have been most discouraging. But if that 
were so no sign of the discouragement was 
then apparent. The leaders of German opin- 
ion insisted that the United States could 
never be a serious factor in the outcome. 



I04 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



They ridiculed our army, decried our plans 
for its development, insisted that there 
were not ships enough in existence to carry 
our troops across the Atlantic in season to 
save the Allies, and declared that even if the 
ships were built their submarines would sink 
them faster than they could be put into 
service. 

To what extent the German people believed 
this, or indeed to what extent it was believed 
by the men who put these arguments out, 
is hard to tell. Certainly at the moment 
there were no signs of discouragement appar- 
ent among the German soldiers or the 



United States, and the comparative condition 
of the belligerents at its close are likely to 
be studied with great care by historians. 
For nations are quite as vain as individuals^ 
perhaps indeed rather vainer — and there is 
already a tendency among certain elements 
here in the United States to claim that but 
for the timely entrance of this nation upon 
the conflict the Entente Allies would have 
been defeated and Germany would have been 
left master of Europe, and m a position to 
make itself master of the world. This view 
is naturally hotly controverted by the 
spokesmen of the Allies. 




British officers passing the municipal offices of Bagdad. The Gernian "Berhn to Bagdad" ambition ended when the British 

took Bagdad in July, 1918 



German people. The army was well fed, 
and while the fighting of 1917 had gone 
slightly in the German favor, yet the final 
accounting showed the year's operations 
to have been about a set-ofF between the 
belligerents. Any person of intelligence must 
have recognized, however, the fact that any 
fighting at all was to German disadvantage 
since they had not the means of replacing 
their losses that were still left to the Allies. 
And the incoming flood of American troops 
more than made up any Allied loss without 
any further call upon the 3-outh of France 
or Great Britain. 

In time the records of this last year of the 
war before the active participation of the 



It is a pity that any such controversv 
should have arisen, and it is more than 
doubtful if facts, to become known later, 
will support the contention of the American 
extremists. It is more probable that as the 
history of the war shall be fully revealed 
military students will come to agree with 
those German authorities, including the 
Crown Prince, who confessed belatedly that 
Germany lost the war when she lost the first 
battle of the Marne, five weeks after her 
invasion of Belgium. For that disaster 
instantly demolished the entire strategical 
plan with which she had begun hostilities. 
With it disappeared her last chance to crush 
France before Russia could act, and then to 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



105 




The British under General Allenby enter Jerusalem, and the Holy Land, through the deeds of these modern crusaders, comes 

again under Christian control 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



1 06 

crush Russia before Great Britain could 
create an army. 

There were other periods, later in the war, 
when the German chances of reaching Paris 
seemed as good as in that first fierce rush. 
But it was not taking Paris that in 1914 was 
expected to win the war. With the occupa- 
tion of Paris at that time would have come 
the serious crippling of the French Army thus 



In 1917, at any rate, there was no reason 
to despair of the allied cause even had the 
United States troops not been pouring into 
France. In the west the Germans had been 
beaten back to the Hindenburg line and were 
giving no indications of mtendmg another 
drive. Italy had, it is true, encountered a 
grave disaster, but had at last stayed the 
enemy's advance and seemed able to recoup 




General AUenby and his staff in front of one of the most ancient buildings in Jerusalem. The General's proclamation to the 
citizens of the Holy City is being read to them in Arabic 

deprived of what was then its chief base, her fortunes, as in fact she did. In Mesopo- 

The transport of British troops to the tamia the British were wholly successful, 

continent would have been greatly inter- The Russian debacle was menacing but at 

rupted, if not indeed absolutely shut off, for the time no one knew, or even suspected, 

with Paris in German hands the channel how thoroughly the revolutionary elements 

ports could never have been retained by the in that country were to come under German 

French. But the first battle of the Marne control. The situation in the Balkans was 

averted all that and in the fullest sense pre- bad, but well-informed observers knew that 

vented German victory, not only then but the Teutonic strength in that region was 

for all time. There were many dark days wholly dependent upon German money and 

for the Allies thereafter, but not until the German manpower and both were rapidly 

close of the war brought revelation of its being exhausted. 

secrets did we know how much darker they The moment indeed was such that the 

were for the foe. entrance of the United States should have 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



107 





This was once the beautiful and prosperous tov\n of Bapaume, trance 



been more instantaneously conclusive than 
it was. It would have been the part of 
wisdom for the Central Powers to take even 
more immediate and vigorous steps for endmg 
the war than they in fact did. For even 
without this new adversary they were beaten 
to a standstill. While they might hope to 
avoid an ignominious surrender they could 



not hope for victory. But with the United 
States arrayed against them their cause was 
hopeless. All the men and money they 
sacrificed thereafter were wantonly thrown 
awav; all the" hurt they inflicted on their 
adversaries was as truly criminal as the mur- 
der done by a burglar attempting to escape 
after his crime has been detected. 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




President Wilson enjoying one of his brief respites from pressing national and international cares and responsibilities 



CHAPTER VI 



GENERAL PERSHING ARRIVES IN EUROPE A TORPEDO ATTACK TRAINING 

SOLDIERS IN FRANCE EARLY FIGHTING BATTLE OF SEICHEPREY HOW 

AN ATTACK IS PLANNED CAPTURE OF CANTIGNY BOURESCHES, VAUX, AND 

CHATEAU-THIERRY THE MARINES AT BELLEAU WOOD 




T 



HE dock 
front of 
Li verpool 
was gay with 
the entwined bunting 
of the United States 
and England, and a 
British general with 
a guard of honor stood 
awaiting, on June i8, 
1917, the Baltic bear- 
ing General John J. 
Pershing and his staff 
— the Commander-in- 
Chief, fore-runners of 
the American Expedi- 
tionary Force to 
France. The occa- 
sion was one the his- 
toric significance of 
which could scarcely 
be exaggerated. For 

An American wrestling the first time in its 

match in France. The fact national history the 
that our boys were such good United States had be- 

athletes helped them greatly ^^^^ ^^^ ^f ^J^g _ 

as fighters. ■ ■ ^ ■ 1 

ticipants m a general 

European war. For the first time her soldiers 
were to fight on European soil, and she had 
chosen for chief associates in the war — political 
considerations forbade the word " aUies " — the 
nation which had been her first enemy. Great 
Britain, and that which had been her first 
friend, France. 

But the ancient enmity had long since been 
forgotten. When a day or two after landing 
General Pershing was received by King 
George, lineal descendant _of that George 
who pushed the American colonies into 
revolt, the monarch said, "It has been the 
dream of my life to see the two great English- 
speaking nations more closely united. My 
dreams have been realized. It is with the 
utmost pleasure that I welcome you at the 



head of the American contingent to our 
shores." 

And a httle later in Boulogne the American 
general, as he stepped for the first time on 
French soil, heard the veteran French soldier 
deputed to greet him say, "I salute the 
United States of America, which has now 
become united to the United States of Eur- 
ope." All Pans was mad with joy as the 
little handful of American soldiers giving 
earnest of the millions yet to come, drove 
through its streets. Everywhere the tri- 
color and the stars and stripes were inter- 
twined, and the Parisians did not fail to 
comment on the happy augury that the 
colors of the two repubhcs were the same. 
"Vive Joffre who saved us from defeat!" 
cried an excited girl from a window on the 
Avenue de I'Opera, "Vive Pershing who 
brings us victory!" The American general 
was taken to the tomb of NapoleQHv'-and 
handed the great Emperor's sword to rever- 
ence — an honor prior to that moment never 
granted to any save a Frenchman. He was 
conducted to the House of Deputies where 
Ribot said, in the course of a speech of wel- 
come, "The people of France fully understand 
the deep significance of the arrival of General 
Pershing in France. It is one of the greatest 
events in history that the people of the 
United States should come here, not to strug- 
gle, not in the spirit of ambition or conquest, 
but for the noble ideals of justice and liberty." 

Shortly after this ceremony the general 
was conducted to the tomb of Lafayette in 
the Picpus cemetery, accompanied by the 
Marquis de Chambrun, a lineal descendant 
of the dead patriot. The ceremony was 
brief but stimulating. Holding an immense 
wreath in his hands the General stepped to- 
ward the tomb while all about him stood at 
attention. Visibly affected with generous 
emotion he laid the flowers on the bier with 
the fitting words "Lafayette, we have come, 



UXI^ED STA-^ES IX THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



III 




General Pershing inspecting a detachment of his troops newlj' landed in France 



we are here!" and retired. The whole world 
the next day knew that the American leader 
had spoken precisely the right thought, when 
he made it appear that the American forces 
had come to the aid of France as France had 
a right to expect; that they were there to 
pay a long standing debt to Lafayette and 
to his country. 

Much might be written about the inter- 
national courtesies that attended the arrival 
of the American general. But he was there 
for a sterner purpose than the interchange 
of civilities, and it was only a day before 
he was plunged deep in the details of arrang- 
ing for the arrival of the colossal armies that 
were being made ready on the other side of 
the Atlantic. 

Before this war the civilian hardly grasped 
.the idea of the enormous amount of work in- 
volved in the moving of the great masses 
of men that modern warfare calls into action. 
It was thought that we might need an army 
in France of 4,500,000 men, and we did in 
fact at the close of hostilities have there, 
or en route thither, no less than 2,053,347. 
Ships were lacking to carry this army. They 
must be built, or begged from England. 
This was no concern of the General, but it 
may be noted at this juncture that so rapidly 
did ship building proceed in the United 
States that, though destitute of a merchant 



marine at the outset, we were able to trans- 
port more than 45 per cent, of our soldiers 
in our own bottoms. But not only ships 
were lacking, but ports for their entry. The 
ports of France along the channel, familiar 
to every American tourist, Boulogne, Havre, 
Calais, Dieppe, were crowded with English 
shipping, bringing over troops and munitions 
of war. Accordingly ports, not so well 
known nor so well equipped, were set aside 
for American use. These were four — Brest, 
already a great French naval station — St. 
Nazaire, Bordeaux, and LaPallice. Of these 
the first two were most used. 

A considerable body of American special 
service troops had preceded the General- 
in-Chief to France, and on June 26th the 
first convoy of troop ships arrived at St. 
Nazaire. The voyage over had not been 
uneventful. The Germans were not to be 
caught napping, and Rear Admiral Gleaves, 
in command of the naval escort, reported 
that two submarine attacks had been made 
but that both had been beaten off. In 
each case the track of the torpedo was de- 
tected but the submarine itself could not 
be descried. An eye witness described the 
first attack as follows: 

Hell broke loose. Our (the big ship's) helm was 
jammed over. Firing every gun available we swung 
in a wide circle out of hne to the left. A smaller ship 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




© Paul Thompson 
American troops in Paris on the Fourth of July, 1918, passing the "I'Hotel des Invalides" where they were reviewed by 
General Pershing and the descendants of the French officers who fought for the independence of the United States in 1776 



slipped inte our place and from what the lookout told 
me, I think one of her shells must have landed almost 
right above the submarine. But they are almost 
impossible to hit when submerged and the periscope 
is no target anyhow. 

They fired three, if not four, torpedoes. It was 
God's mercy that they all went astray among so many 
of our ships. As you see our helm iamming was ab- 
solutely Providential. 

Naturally the old — — acted quite differently from 




American troops leaving Paris for the front on July 5th, 1918 



what the Boches expected; otherwise they might 
have got us. It was simply extraordinary. We 
drove right at them (really, I suppose the safest thing 
to do as the bow gives the smallest mark to shoot at) 
and it seems to have rattled Brother Boche considerably. 
After all, we draw enough water to smash a submarine 
at a level of the periscope, awash, and no doubt he did 
not care to wait for us. Or perhaps a lucky shot dis- 
posed of him. Anyhow, he disappeared and we saw 
no more of him. 

The whole business lasted only 
about a minute and a half. But be- 
lieve me it added more than that to 
my life. While the thing was hap- 
pening I had no time for anything 
but to attend to my job. After^vard 
I found myself sweating and my 
breast heaving as if I had run five 
miles. The other boys told me the 
same thing, but we got a compliment 
on the rapidity with which the guns 
were served, so I guess it did not in- 
terfere with our actions. 



Dawn had not broken when 
the American fleet steamed 
into the harbor of St. Nazaire. 
Leading the column was the 
ship De Kalb, which in more 
peaceful days had been the 
German liner PrinzEitel Fried- 
rich, and after a brief period 
as an armed commerce de- 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




stroyer under the German flag had eluded the 
vigilance of the British fleet and slipped for 
sanctuary into the then neutral port of 
Hampton Roads. When the United States 
declared war she was seized, with other 
German ships, and by a fine stroke of fate 
was chosen to take the first body of armed 
men to France. They were a detachment 
of United States marines and what they did 
on the battlefield will be told elsewhere. 

News of the arrival of "les Americaines" 
spread rapidly through the little town, and 
the wharves and waterfront streets were 
quickly filled with excited and enthusiastic 
French people. Where American flags had 
been found in that hamlet seemed inexplica- 
ble, but there they were by the scores and 
the people who had not the flag itself waved 
red, white, and blue streamers. Early as 
was the hour thousands were 
thronging the docks and shout- 
ing from every place of vant- 
age, -"Vive Les Etats Unis! 
Vive la France!" Steam 
whistles were blowing from 
the craft in the harbor, and 
the bands on the ships blew 
themselves hoarse with the 
Marseillaise and the Star 
Spangled Banner in alterna- 
tion. There were formal dele- 
gations from the French Army 
and Navy there to greet the 
new allies, but the true greet- 
ing came from the populace 
who crowded the narrow 
streets as the men marched 
through to the great camp 
that had been prepared for 
their reception. 

Frederick Palmer, veteran 
of American war correspond- 



ents, says of this initial body of American 
troops in France: 

The character of the ships which we had gathered as 
transports was significant enough of our lack of a mer- 
chant marine; a former German auxiliary cruiser, and 
sea-going and coast-going vessels of a plodding speed. 
Above the gunwales of their gray sides was a crowded 
mass of khaki spotted with white faces, and all the 
parts of the superstructure were blotted and festooned 
by khaki, freed of the long nights in the close quarters 
of the hold when no lights might be shown on deck, 
now out in the sunlight of a June day having their 
first glimpse of France, which was having its first 
glimpse of an American army. Nothing that these 
soldiers saw was like what they had left — boats, piers, 
houses, streets, people — and they were like no soldiers 
who had ever come to France before. Their talk had 
the rattling twang of the bleachers before the ball game 
begins, unmistakable wherever you hear it. Well, 
here they were. The "subs" had not got them. They 







Men of the 42nd Division of the American Expeditionary Forces in a front-line 
trench in France 



114 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




These American engineers were laying a road across tlu /u 
tor three days in a drenching r.nn 

wouldn't have to knock about deck in the dark, or be 
packed in the hold any longer. The sea was all right; 



W-rdun. 
constant 



They had been working steadily 
hell fire 




General Madolon of the French Army escorting General Wood of the 
American Army through a dugout 



let the navy have it. But give them the land; they were 
soldiers. When did they get ashore? And what next? 



What was ne.xt was drill and more 
drill. Straight from the transports 
the men were sent to the camps in 
which they were to learn the art of 
war. General Pershing himself in his 
final report after peace had been at- 
tained tells briefly of this part of the 
trainmg of a soldier: 

Very early a system of schools was outlined 
and started, which should have the advantage 
of instruction by officers direct from the front. 
At the great school centre at Langres, one of 
the first to be organized, was the stafF school, 
where the principles of general staff work, as 
laid down in our own organization, were 
taught to carefully selected officers. Men in 
the ranks, who had shown qualities of leader- 
ship, were sent to the school of candidates 
for commissions. A school of the line taught 
younger officers the principles of leadership, 
tactics, and the use of the different weapons. 
In the artillery school, at Saumur, 3'oung 
officers were taught the fundamental prin- 
ciples of modern artillery-; while at Issoudun 
an immense plant was built for training caders 
in aviation. These and other schools, with 
their well-considered curriculums for training 
in every branch of our organization, were 
coordinated in a manner best to develop an 
efficient army out of willing and industrious 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



115 




An American infantry company advancing and mopping up trenches which have just been captured in the Forest of 

Argonne, France 



young men, many of whom had not before known even 
the rudiments of military technique. Both Marshal 
Haig and General Petain placed officers and men at our 
disposal for instructional purposes, and we are deeply 
indebted for the opportunities given to profit by their 
veteran experience. 

It is a curious fact that the precise points 
of American participation in the war were 
fixed by the location of the ports at which 
our men were landed, and the direction taken 
by the railroads leading inland from those 
ports. Except for a few sHght skirmishes 
participated in by small bodies of our men 
who had been sent into the French trenches 
nearest at hand for training purposes, our 
fighting was all on the far east of the French 
line, in Lorraine, the Argonne, and the plains 
of Champagne. 

Looking back upon the singularly precipi- 
tate end of the war, and the positions that 
the American armies had attained when 
Germany cried aloud for peace, a student of 
military strategy would see that this field 
of action which General Pershing in his report 
says was forced upon him by conditions of 
transport was in fact the most effective one 
for botthng-up the German armies in France 
and Belgium. Indeed our men had hardly 
got into action before their position so threat- 
ened the Germans' communication with 
their home country that the safety of their 
armies was seriously menaced. But of this 
more later. 

In an earlier chapter I have told of the 



first American deaths at the front. The 
men who then died were m trenches for 
training purposes, and not long after a group 
of engineers were unexpectedly caught in a 
British turning movement and dropped pick 
and shovel for rifle and bayonet, acquitting 
themselves so gallantly that even a German 
newspaper paid tribute to their gallantry 
though it questioned their comprehension 
of the issues which brought them to the 
battlefield thus: 

There they stood before us, these young men from 
the land of liberty. They were sturdy and sports- 
manlike in build. Good-natured smiles radiated from 
their blue eyes, and they were quite surprised that we 
did not propose to shoot them down as they had been 
led in their French training camp to believe we would 
do. 

They know no reply to our query "Why does the 
United States carry on war against Germany?" The 
sinking of the American ships by U-boats, which was the 
favorite pretext, sounds a trifle stale. One prisoner 
expressed the opinion that we had treated Belgium 
rather badly. Another asserted that it was Lafayette 
who brought America French aid during the war of 
independence and because of this the United States 
would now stand by France. 

But whether willing or not to tell the Boche 
why they fought, fight they did and so gal- 
lantly that the same German journaUst 
credited them with making a "most desperate 
defense." 

Skirmishes like these, however, while they 
helped to estabUsh the American morale, 



ii6 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



are not to be considered as marking the true 
entrance of our forces upon the European 
conflict. General Pershing himself tixes the 
fight at Seicheprey, on the 26th of April, , 
1 91 8, as the first serious participation of the 
American forces in actual battle. And even 
there our men were not actmg as a unit. 
For late in March of that year, being spurred 
on by contemplation of the seemingly irre- 
sistible progress made by the Germans in the 
drive they began on the 21st, General Persh- 
ing had put the whole American Army at 
the disposal of General Foch, to be used 
either as a unit, or to be broken up among 
French commands that might need strength- 
ening. It was an act of notable renunciation 
for the Lnited States, and one which for 
the moment seemed to portend that we should . 
never have our army operating as a coherent 
whole and winning distinctive laurels. But 
it was perhaps the culminating act of the 
war. For it made of the position to which 
General Foch had been chosen, after ven,' 
senous hesitation on the part of the British, 
that of Commander-in-Chief in fact as well 
as in name, and the result proved not merely 
the wisdom of the choice but the fact that 
this unity of command had not been estab- 
lished one day too soon. 

The Germans were then in the ver\' midst 
of the drive. Nothing, it appeared, would 
stop them. They swept forward day after 



day, sometimes gaining as much as twelve 
miles in a single day, and sweeping before 
them all English and French opposition. 
The whole world held its breath as this fierce 
thrust at the Allied lines went on with appar- 
ently no possibility of check. April 20th 
they came for the first time into direct con- 
tact with the Americans at Seicheprey, in a 
sharp combat which may well be taken as 
our troops' first baptism of fire. At first 
our men were driven from their positions, 
a result which was naturally to be expected 
in the first clash of inexperienced troops with 
veterans. But almost instanth" the Ameri- 
can fighting blood was stirred. Sharp re- 
action came m the moment of seeming defeat 
and the troops, rallying, fought their way back 
to their original positions, inflicting upon 
the enemy a loss of several hundred men. 
Our own losses were for the first time heavy. 
Berlin reported the capture of 185 American 
soldiers and 25 machine guns. 

Our men were now fairly launched upon 
the full tide of war. Day by day new divi- 
sions were sent into the French trenches, 
day by day more transports nosed their way 
into the French harbors and landed columns 
of khaki-clad men shouting for chances to 
get at the Boches. May came. Not the 
usual flowen,- French May, but a month of 
unseasonably cold and sno\\y weather. Or- 
dered to the trenches in front of Montmedy, 




A field gun on the edge ot Belleau \\ ood effectively concealed from aerial observation 



UNITED STATES 



the men of our First Division 
under command of General 
BuUard came to know all that 
desperate chill, discomfort, and 
hardship of trench life which 
affects the soldier more than 
the sharper and deadlierclutch 
of battle. They stood athwart 
the Boches' path to Paris about 
50 miles north of the city, and 
occupied a sector of the line 
with a French division on 
either side. Hardly had they 
arrived when preparations be- 
gan making for an offensive. 
Before them in plain view was 
the town of Cantigny, perched 
on a hill and in possession of 
the foe. It was to be the job 
of the Americans to take it, 
and for long days they looked 
wistfully upon it over the 
parapet awaiting the moment 




An American sharp shooter reducing the number of our enemies in Picardj' 



to go over. 
Assaults of this character in modern war 
are not made on the spur of the moment. 
All sorts of preparation are needed. Bar- 
rages are to be planned, the terrain carefully 
studied that the officers may know whither 
they are leading their men, runners must 
be drilled, and a complicated system of 
signals worked out. If all the details of 
such an offensive were set down in print it 
would make a very considerable volume. 
Manual labor was not stinted. Jumping-off" 



trenches had to be dug through the territory 
pitted with deep shell craters. Ammunition 
and food had to be gathered for the men 
who were to participate in the assault. In 
this instance the men of the 28th Infantry 
who were selected for the perilous honor 
had each to carry 220 rounds of ammunition, 
two hand grenades, and one rifle grenade, 
two canteens filled with water, one shelter 
half (the technical name for part of a tent), 
four sand bags, one flare, and one shovel 
or pick. It was still cold but they were or- 
dered to leave their blankets 
behind, although otherwise 
they were equipped for spend- 
ing two days in the new posi- 
tions, the winning of which 
none was permitted to doubt. 

There had been quiet on the 
sector and in the Cantigny 
front for days. Nobody wanted 
to draw the Boches' attention 
to that neighborhood just then. 
But just about dawn on May 
28th the big guns all along the 
Allies' hne opened on Cantigny 
and on the Boche positions 
protecting it. No one could 
see the coming of the day, for 
the red light of the cannon 
flashes far outdid the glow that 
heralded the rising of the sun. 
The great guns crashed, the 

A wounded "doughboy" being carried to the rear on a stretcher shells shrieked thoUgh the air 




Ii8 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




1 



American troops between Chateau-Thierry and Verdun dunnj; a buii , ,.> li in i:_ :i,i_ 

and exploded with deep roars or with sudden was so deafening, so all-compeUing upon ever^' 

sharp cracks according to their caHbre. Ot sense, that when it suddenly ended on the 

such another opening bombardment and bar- minute set and dead silence fell all along the 

rage a soldier once said to the writer, "It lines the relaxation of strained senses was 




This bridge across the Mosi 



is perhaps the best known war bridge in France 
American offensive 



arks the extreme eastern flank .it the 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



119 




The interior of an American hospital train filled with wounded soldiers 



such that every nerve end on our bodies sprang 
into angry protest, and our skins were covered 
with a sort of gooseflesh." 

The first American offensive was wholly 
successful. Major Frederick Palmer, a vet- 
eran observer, writes of it in his excellent 
book "America in France": 



At 6:45 in the early dawn of May 28th, as has hap- 
pened many times before, the line of figures started up 
from the earth and began their advance. The forma- 
tions were the same as those of the practice maneuvres 
and the movement was equally precise as it kept to 
the time table of the barrage. Each unit was doing its 
part, the tanks as they nosed their way forward doing 
theirs. Our shelling of the lower end of the town sud- 




This was a village of France. The Germans destroyed three hundred and sixty thousand pri\ ate homes in France alone 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



denly ceased, and then our men were seen entering the 
town exactly on time. Headquarters waited on re- 
ports, and they came, of prisoners taken, of the further 
progress of units — all according to the charts. We had 
passed through the town; we were mopping it up; and 
we had reached our objective in front of the town. 
Our losses to that point were less than a hundred men, 
with three hundred and fifty prisoners. A small offen- 
sive, as offensives go, but our own and our first. 

Going over the top in a frontal attack had been al- 
most tame, it was so like practice exercises. The fact 
that our practice exercises had been so systematically 
applied, that indeed we had done ever3'thing in the 
book, accounted for the perfect success of Cantigny. 
1 here was a glad proud light in the eyes of our wounded. 
They had been hit in a "real party." Nobody could 
deny that they were graduate soldiers now. But there 
was to be the reaction which always comes with limited 
objectives when j'ou do not advance far enough to draw 
the enemy's fangs — his guns. Upon the road along 
which men must pass to brmg up supplies, upon every 




Here are some ot the AmencTii boys who advanced across a wheat field in the face ol a line of 
machine guns and heavv field pieces. They cleaned up the machine-gun nests and captured the field 
pieces. It was near the Marne. The Germans insisted it was impossible even after they had done it 



point where men must work, or men or wagons pass, 
upon the command posts, he turns the wrath of his 
resentment over the loss of men and ground and in his 
rage concentrates most wickedly, most persistently, 
and powerfully upon the infantrj' which is trj-ing to 
organize the new frontal positions. 

The German artillen,- would show this upstart Amer- 
ican division its mistake in thinking that it could hold 
what it. had gained. Eight-inch shells were the favorite 
in the bombardment of our men who now had Cantigny 
at their backs as they dug in, while showers of shrapnel 
and gas added to the variet}^ of that merciless pounding 
that kept up for three da^s. We suffered serious casual- 
ties now; but we did not go back, and we took revenge 
for our casualties in grim use of rifle and machine gun 
which, with the aid of prompt barrages, repulsed all 
counter attacks until the Germans were convinced of 
the futility of further efforts. 

Of this initial endeavor of the United 
States troops General Pershing said in his 
final report, 
"Although 
local, this bril- 
liant action had 
an electrical 
effect, as it 
demonstrated 
our fighting 
qualities under 
extreme battle 
conditions, and 
also that the 
enemy's troops 
were not alto- 
gether invinci- 
ble." 

While the 
guns were still 
roaring at Can- 
tigny the Ger- 
mans launched 
that drive upon 
the Marne and 
Paris which for 
a time seemed 
likely to regain 
for them all the 
territory that 
General JofFre 
had driven them 
from in 1914. 
In less than a 
week the}- drove 
fonvard against 
the best en- 
deavors of the 
Allied forces for 



I 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




nm ttee on Public Information 
American troops halted b> the roadside in a picturesque French village on the Marne 



a penetration of thirty miles. The rivers 
Aisne and Vesle were crossed. Noyon and 
Soissons were taken, and Rheims, with its 
sorely battered cathedral, was closely be- 
leaguered. A great salient extended into 
Picardy toward Paris and once again German 
officers were gaily making dates to dine in 
the Cafe de la Paix. To the Allies the situa- 
tion was a menacing one. Already their 
reserves were sorely depleted, so much so 
that for months they had been compelled 
to maintain the defensive, even when German 
dispositions invited offense. To some extent 
this was, of course, due to the fact that the 
Americans were coming up fast, and patience 
on the part of the AUies was certain to be 
rewarded in the end. Precisely the same 
reason impelled the Germans to keep ever 
and desperately on the attack. For however 
much they might belittle and ridicule the 
slowly swelling power of the United States 
at the seat of war, they knew well enough that 
the increase of that power meant their final 
defeat, and if they were to stave off disaster 
they must win their war before the full force 
of the American republic could have passed 
the seas. 

That was the reason for the desperation 
and the gallantry of the German drive which 
brought their heavy artillery within range 
of Paris, and looking back upon it after the 
final Teutonic collapse it seems amazing that 



a scant six months before their final abject 
surrender they could have nerved themselves 
to such a gigantic eff'ort and have put into 
It such seemingly inexhaustible power. 

It was due to American troops more than 
to any other single factor, or for that matter 
group of factors, that this fifth and last phase 
of the great German drive was blocked and 
rolled back. Not that there had been the 
slightest sign of weakening on the part of 
any of our Allies. But they had borne the 
heat and the brunt of conflict for more than 
four years, and the spectacle of the enemy 
at a moment when he should have been even 
more exhausted than they, coming up again 
to the attack in seemingly undiminished 
numbers and with certainly unaffected spirit 
was naturally to them discouraging. The 
Germans were indeed staking everything 
upon the issue of this conflict. It was shown 
later that in the Marne saHent the Crown 
Prince had used 47 divisions, and between 
Rheims and the Argonne forest more than 
40 more. In all, Germany brought into action 
on the western front from the beginning of 
the drive in May to its disastrous end in 
July 2,339,000 men. All Picardy was stripped 
of men, and from every point controlled by 
Germany whence new divisions could be 
called the stream of troops to the front was 
like the flowing of a mighty river. 

Outnumbered at first, and still handicapped 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Flench solJiLis tilling in a German "tank trap" — a huh 
ing and camouflaged to look like the surrounding ground, 
did not fall in as planned by the enemy 

by operating on exterior hnes, Foch stood 
long on the defensive finding profit in such 
small attacks as those at Cantigny and 
Bouresches, but while he took here and there 
a single village the enemy were taking them 
by the score. It was no part of the Foch 



pLirpose to let this continue 
indefinitely. And as by act of 
the President of the L'nited 
States and of General Persh- 
ing, he had the use of some 
tens of thousands of fresh and 
eager American troops ready 
to hand, with some hundreds 
of thousands too far away for 
immediate action, but speed- 
ing on their way as fast as ships 
could carry them, he deter- 
mined to interpose a barrier m 
the Hun's path. 

Accordingly, on the night of 
the 29th of May, the Third 
American Division, General 
Joseph Dickman command- 
ing, which was getting ready 
to go into a quiet sector over 
toward Lorraine, received sud- 
den orders to get under way 
for a station on the Marne 
in the thick of the fighting. 
Off they went in a mad rush. The motorized 
machine-gun battalion led the way, having its 
own transport, and not being compelled to 
wait for trains. Swiftly thereafter army trucks 
brought up the main body. \\ hile they were 
beins concentrated the French High Corn- 



covered with plank- 
The Allied tractors 




Public Infon 
This scene is typical of every road back of the St. Mihiel salient during the American advance 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



123 




The 26th Division, made up of New Englanders, who were said to have been the first Americans to enter front-hne trenches 



mand called on the Second Division as well — 
a body still further advanced in war training 
than the Third. All were rushed along at 
topmost speed in crowded army. trucks to 
their Hnes at Meaux, Conde, and Martigny. 
At dead of night the flying commands 
would be halted on the road by French offi- 
cers with orders to turn off here or there, and 
go into the trenches which would be mdi- 
cated to them. The roads were crowded 
with fugitive peasants from the front. The 
sky blazed with the fitful flashes of the great 
guns and the earth shook with their shocks. 
The air reverberated with the thunders of 
the cannon, while from the passing crowds 
of refugees rose ever the thankful cry '' Les 
Americaines! Les Aviericaines sont ici." 

It was clear enough to the men of the 
Second and Third divisions that their pros- 
pect of a respite in a quiet sector had gone 
glimmering. But their ardor was all the 
greater as these signs told them that they 
were on their way to a hotly contested 
spot on the battle line. It was the Marne 
for which they were headed — most famous 
of rivers which the French nation should 
certainly make holy for the part it played 
in their national defense if there is any way 
of canonizing a stream. The Germans 
were now in force all along the northern side 
of the river, but only at the village of Dor- 
mans had they crossed. At Chateau-Thierry 
the stream runs through the town, and the 



7th Motorized United States Machine Gun 
Corps had dashed into that hamlet in time 
to keep the enemy from getting across, while 
the French retired across the bridge and 
blew it up. First of all Americans to shed 




1-4 



UNITED STATES IX THE GREAT WAR 




A part 01 rhe so-called impregnable line which the Germans had held for four 
years and which the Americans took 



their blood upon the banks of Mame were 
they. 

Chateau-ThierT\- bulks large in our na- 
tional traditions for it was there that our 
militan." forces first participated in a really 
great battle. It was there that the forces 
of the United States saved Paris and re- 
ceived credit for it from a world in arms. 
The machine gunners, first to arrive because 
of their motorized equipment, were holding 
the enemy at the bridges over the ^lame, 
when with a rush up came the Second Division 
made up of regulars and a brigade of United 
States marines. Hard, disciplined, deter- 
mined fighters were they. ^lostly under 
the age of thirty, they had the physical fitness 
of youth, while long discipline had given 
them the cool determination of veterans. 
-Along a line of twelve miles they dug in, 
and hour by hour more troops and ammuni- 
tion came rolUng up to fill the ranks and 
make ready for the demolition of the Hun. 

The country' which the -\mericans were 
facmg had been fair to look upon before it 
had been distorted and lacerated by war. 
Broad open fields were interspersed by little 
clumps of woods and red-roofed villages. 
Both of these latter, however pleasing to the 
eye. were danger spots. In the villages, 
notably that of Bouresches, which the marines 
faced, the cellars were filled with machine 
guns and the stone houses common to that 
part of France were fortresses in a small 



way. The woods, though cool 
and green in the June sun, 
were not less dangerous. 
Boche machine guns nestled 
in even.- thicket and back of 
even.- outcropping of rock, of 
which the woods were full. 
Artillery fire, however hea\"\, 
was ineffectual against guns 
so protected. It only cut down 
the larger trees making of 
them, intertwined with the 
underbrush, a barrier im- 
penetrable to troops, but 
through which the bullets of 
the unseen machine guns sped 
with murderous certitude. 

Bouresches was first to suc- 
cumb to the cleaning up proc- 
ess. Our artiller\" pounded 
away at it until mere heaps of 
formless masonr\- covered the 
cellars in which the Boche 
machine gunners were ensconced. Then 
came the troops, infantn.' and marines both, 
through the desolated streets. Thev had 
to meet shrapnel and gas from German 




A German cemerer.- '..;t - .:r5:-e rhe rc'.vn ■:■■: it. Mihiel which 
indicates that the Germans thought thev had come to stav 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



125 



, ^n^-^ 




nmitteeon PuI.Ik Inf.u 
Headquarters troops of the 26th Division making a passageway for trucks through the wreckage of a French town 



shells, and a rain of bullets from machine 
guns hidden in the ruins. But with heads 
bowed to the blast they went on, drove the 
enemy out of their cellars, with hand grenades 
and the bayonet, and established themselves 
there as a sort of forlorn hope. Their 
runners, speeding across a terrain swept by 
German fire, bore to headquarters the cheer- 
ing news that the Americans were estabhshed 
in Bouresches and did not propose to be 
driven out. Twice the Boches essayed that 
task, but were blocked. Then for a time 
they put up a barrage of shell fire behind 
the Americans with the apparent idea of 
stopping all communication until they were 
. starved into surrender. But the Yanks knew 
a trick worth two of that. They stripped 
both their own dead and those of the Germans 
of food and water, found some chickens, a 
cow and a pig or two which they slaughtered, 
and with this sustenance beat the enemy 
back in several fierce counter-attacks. 

Meantime at Vaux, at Chateau-Thierry^ 
and at Hamel the Americans had been fight- 
ing fiercely and victoriously. Vaux, a little 



town on the Chateau-Thierry road down 
which the Germans passed on their way 
toward Pans, was completely obliterated 
in the fighting. Not a building was left 
standing. That was the result of twelve 
hours' pounding by our artillery, for while 
the town was that of a friendly nation it 
sheltered our joint enemies and had to go. 
Germans who had endured that fire described 
it as terribly efficient. A wounded German 
brought into our lines after the firing had 
proceeded for some hours said that the only 
places which were tenable in the town were 
the caves of which there were several score, 
and even into these the poisonous fumes 
from American gas shells had penetrated. 
But artillery alone could not clear up the 
town and our men charged through a wheat 
field and through a neighboring wood, pre- 
ceded by a heavy barrage, in gallant style. 
The ruins of the town were quickly taken and 
their defenders slain with grenades or the 
bayonet, or made prisoners. 

Most notable, however, of this series of 
actions was that fought for four desperate 



126 



IGNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




\n An 



en-inch gun being fired. An airplane observer reported where the shell burst among the enemy in the 
Argonne Forest twenty miles away 



days, mainly by men of the United States 
Marine Corps, in Belleau Wood. The spot 
was a dense thicket of trees and underbrush 
to the northwest of Chateau-Thierr}', and 
directly on the road which the Germans 
were endeavoring to follow to Paris. It was 



A German gun captur 



on the 6th of June that the Marines began 
this attack to the northwest of Chateau- 
Thierry, and after their success at Bouresches 
made their way into the recesses of the wood 
that has become world famous. What 
they accomplished in that thicket so impressed 
the people of the neigh- 
borhood that they de- 
clared that the mannes 
alone had saved Pans, 
and insisted on renam- 
ing the forest "the 
Wood of the Brigade 
of Marines." The 
battle was just a hard- 
fought, grubbing, 
gruelling advance 
through tangled thick- 
ets, and over rugged, 
cut-up ground heavily 
held by machine guns. 
There was no enemy; 
hne visible. His gun- 
ners, in clumps of from 1 
two to six, each with a j 
spiteful machme gun, 
were hidden away be- 
hind impenetrable for- 
est growths, in caves, 
or behind the out- 

d by our trooi :s in Belleau Wood CrOppingS of limeStOnC 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



127 




since there were no trenches to speak of and the fighting 
was all in the open or in the woods. 

There wasn't a bit of hesitation from any man. 
All went forward in an even line. You had no heart for 
fear at all. Fight — fight and get the Germans was 
your only thought. Personal danger didn't concern 
you in the least and you didn't care. 



The 75th Battery, which was part of the enormous artillery concentration which was the dominant feature of the St. Mihiel drive 



that are a characteristic of the section. It 
was, making allowance for the vastly more 
deadly quahty of the weapons, something of 
the sort of fighting that our ancestors had 
employed against the Indians in our primeval 
forests and a knowledge of which enabled 
George Washington to save the remnants of 
Braddock's British Army at Fort Duquesne. 
The story is dear>to every American school- 
boy. Here in France, as almost 150 years 
before in Pennsylvania, it was individual 
fighting, every man for himself and the 
officers in the thick of it with their men. 
There was no chance for other commands or 
tactics than "Up and at them." In a fight 
of this sort the American soldier, schooled to 
self-reliance and mdividual initiative, is at 
his best. So he showed at Belleau Wood, 
for with a determination and a pertinacity 
that would not be denied he forced his way 
through the thickets, climbed the rocky 
ledges, flung himself headlong into the caves, 
and beat down the Bodies in a battle in 
which there were singularly few prisoners 
taken. The men v/ho fought there had 
among them many who were themselves 
able to tell the story of such parts of the 
battle as they saw vividly. Here, for exam- 
ple, is the story of the part of the fighting 
in Belleau Wood which he saw as Private 
W. H. Smith tells it: 




At four a. m. we went over or rather charged fonvard, 



Some of the dynamite which our troops discovered near St. 
Mihiel which was to have been placed under the road for the 
purpose of blowing them into eternity as they advanced 




A \viuri.r's ni'irnini; iit ;i tirst aiil dressing starinn just bi;liuvl rhc hyhting line. Hi-rr tilt- hrst nccessar 

made before the men are sent by ambulance to the evacuation hospital and on to the Red Cross hospital train. 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 

There were about sixty of us who 
got ahead of the rest of the company. 
We just couldn't stop despite the 
orders of our leaders. We reached 
the edge of the small wooded area 
and there encountered ;ome of the 
Hun infantry. 

Then it became a matter of shoot- 
ing at mere human targets. We 
fixed our rifle sights at 300 yards and 
aiming through the peep kept pick- 
ing off the Germans. And a man 
went down at nearly every shot. 

But the Germans soon detected 
us and we became the objects of 
their heavy fire. We received em- 
phatic orders at this time to come 
back and made the half mile through 
the woods without hardly losing a 
man on the way. 

German machine guns were every- 
where. In the trees and in small 
ground holes. And camouflaged at An American list 
other places so that they couldn't 
be spotted 

We stayed for the most part in one-man pits that 
had been dug and which gave us just a little protection. 

We saw one German a short distance before us, who 
had two dead ones lying across him. He was in a 
sitting posture and was shouting "Kamerad, Kamerad." 
We soon learned the reason. He was serving as a lure 
and wanted a group of Marines to come to his rescue 
so that the kind-hearted Americans would be in direct 
line of fire from machine guns that were in readiness. 

Now isn't that a dirty trick? Say, it made me sore. 
Before I knew what I was doing and before I realized 



129 





Negro troops garrisoning Apremont which had been one of the strongest German 
positions 



L-ning pi)St in No Man's Land only twenty yards from the 
German trenches 

that everyone was shouting at me to stay back I bobbed 
up out of my hole and with bayonet ready beat it out 
and got that Kamerad bird. It seemed but a minute 
or so before I was back. But, believe me, there were 
some bullets whizzing around. They came so close 
at times I could almost feel their touch. My pack 
was shot up pretty much but they didn't get me. 

After that I thought I was bullet proof, and didn't 
care a damn for all the Germans and their machine 
guns. 

Soon we charged forward again. I saw one Dutch- 
man stick his head out of a hole and 
then duck. I ran to the hole. The 
next time his head came up it was 
good-night Fritz. 

Every blamed tree must have had 
a machine gunner. As soon as we 
spied him we'd drop down and pick 
them oflF with our rifles. Potting the 
Germans became great sport. Even 
the officers would seize rifles from 
wounded Marines and go to it. 



The great battles of history, 
the decisive battles, are not 
necessarily those in which are 
engaged the greatest numbers 
of men. Belleau Wood was 
both a great battle and a de- 
cisive battle. It barred the 
Hun's path to Paris. Never 
again did the embattled forces 
of the Kaiser essay that road. 
As the French had stopped 
them finally, and for all time 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




The German concentration our Army broke through. Up to September 26, 1918, the German defence Hnes were as 
indicated by the heavy black lines. In Belgium, Artois, and Champagne, the first, second, third, and fourth trench lines were 
considerable distances apart. In the Argonne sector, however, all four of them were practically together . 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



131 




American troops in the Argoiinc- Forest. Tin.- ht-ld kitchen brought forward with great difficulty and danger has made this 

spot very popular 




An actual gas attack in the Argonne Forest in 1918. The man in the foreground is choking with the deadly fumes and in his 

desperation has torn off his mask 



132 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 

one, not because it was hotly contested and 
afforded uncounted instances of individual 
valor, but because it for the first time brought 
into close and harmonious association the 
soldiers of the world's two greatest republics. 
Never will the Americans forget the .French 
who fought by their side, and never will the 
poilus forget the cheery spirit of comradery 
and helpfulness shown by these men who 
came from far beyond seas to fight for 
France. A story is told of this battle, and 
on good authority, that illustrates this point: 
A French officer was commanding a body 
of French troops in the wood, and had been 
fighting desperately for three days knowing 
that there, if ever, the Boche descent upon 
Paris must be blocked. To him appeared 
suddenly a body of Americans, rushing up, 
out of breath, and ignoring the storm of 
missiles hurtling through the trees. Their 
officer strove to explain their presence, 
though his French was not as good as his 
intentions: " Fous Fatigues," he panted, 
"Fous parti — notre job,'' "You tired — 
you get away — our job," was the import of 
his broken French. But it was understood 
and gratefully. The Americans did indeed 
make it their job and the enemy never saw 
the way through Belleau Wood. 




A German general's headquarteis captured b-v some dough- 
bo_\s pushmg their pistols through the wmdows while the 
general was entertaining visiting dignitaries 

at Verdun, so the Americans put a rude 
stopper upon their ambition to tread the road 
to the French capital by way of Belleau Wood 
and Chateau-Thierry. 

It was a great battle as well as a decisive 



CHAPTER VII 



THE ALLIES TAKE THE OFFENSIVE CLEARING THE SOISSONS-RHEIMS SALIENT 

AMERICANS AT CHATEAU-THIERRY BEGINNING OF THE GREAT GERMAN 

RETREAT WHO WON THE WAR? SERVICES OF EACH NATION BRITISH 

VICTORIES IN PICARDY THE POLICY OF DEVASTATION 




T 



HE time 
had now 
come for the 
AlHes to as- 
sume the offensive 
in what was des- 
tined to be the final 
great battle of the 
war. The Huns had 
been blocked at 
C h a t e a u-T h i e r ry 
and Belleau 
Wood. No longer 
was France in terror 
of their seemingly 
irresistible advance. 
Instead, under the 
generalship of the 
untiring Foch, the 
French and their al- 
lies were preparing 
themselves to take the active part and begin 
the work of driving the foe from France. 
LudendorfFand Hindenburg, though doubtless 
by this time aware of the desperation of the 
German cause, were still indomitable. They 
expected that the French would start a drive 
on the national holiday, July 14th, but when 
that day had passed without action on the part 
of their adversaries they rashly jumped to the 
conclusion that the French were demoralized 
and started a drive of their own. It was a 
fatal error, and the beginning of the end for 
the Huns. The French were more than 
ready. So, too, were the British and the 
Americans, and all along the wide front, from 
Fontenoy to Chateau-Thierry, the forces of 
the Allies not merely repulsed the Germans, 
but drove them, and followed them in what 
was destined to be a pursuit that should not 
end until the war ended. 

It began July i8th, without the preliminary 
bombardment that had come to be looked 
for as the usual heralding of an assault. 



Just at dawn, with a heavy barrage preceding 
them, the Americans and French in the 
territory bounded by Soissons and Chateau- 
Thierry were out of their trenches, and rush- 
ing upon the foe. North of the Belleau 
Wood where our marines had already won 
enduring fame, the troops swept on and 
entered the httle town of Corey as thoroughly 
on time as if they had been guided by pace- 
makers. Belleau, Givry, Courchamps all 
fell in swift succession to the American arms. 
The fighting was of the fiercest. The Kaiser's 
famous Imperial Guards were in the division 
that came across the Marne to attack the 
Americans and fled back again before the foe 
that was so ready to be found. In the woods 
where the battle was hottest the bodies in 
spots lay three and four deep, and it was 
learned later that not less than 5,000 of the 
enemy had been slain there. In the defensive 
battle which preceded their charge the 
Americans held large numbers of machine- 
gun nests in the woods which the enemy had 
to destroy. The nests, or scattered coverts, 
each holding from two to ten men with one 
or more machine guns, are able to inflict 
enormous loss upon an advancing enemy, 
and as they are carefully hidden in the under- 
growth or in gullies the charging foe not in- 
frequently passes them in his rush, and is 
taken by their deadly fire in the rear. The 
fighting here was not unlike the Indian fight- 
ing of our pioneer days. So thick was the 
wood that men evaded the enemy and then 
turning behind him stole up on his rear 
throwing his ranks into confusion. In more 
than one instance American parties driven 
out of their own nests managed to steal 
around and capture guns from the foe for his 
undoing. 

Prominent among the American divisions 
taking part in this battle was the Forty- 
second — the "Rainbow Division" as it came 
to be called. It was stationed in the neigh- 



134 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



135 




King George on a visit to the Western Front with Marshal Foch, General Petain, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, and General 

Sir Henry Rawlinson and their staffs 



borhood of Perthes, supporting the French 
line with orders that if the Germans should 
break through it should take up the conflict. 
Every man in that body of troops drawn from 
New York, Illinois, Ohio, California, and 
other populous states of the Union hoped in 
his heart that the break would come. Come 
It did. To their own bad 
fortune the Germans 
picked out that particular 
sector for their fiercest as- 
sault. Their guns rained 
gas shells until roads and 
woods and fields were satu- 
rated with the poisonous 
mists. From the sky their 
airplanes dropped death 
and destruction. The rat- 
tle of their machine guns 
was as the clamor of a 
ship-building yard in full 
operation. Their legions 
swept forward gallantly to 
the assault seemingly un- 
wearied by four years of 
just such bloody service. 
Our men were ready to 
respond in kind. With 
roar of the 75 's, borrowed 
from the French, for it is 



a melancholy fact that for lack of early prep- 
aration we were forced to fight this war with 
artillery furnished by our Allies, we mowed 
down their advancing infantry. The French 
fought and fell back, after their elastic sys- 
tem which had for its purpose the saving of 
their own men, and the mfliction of the great- 




Americans helping a wounded German soldier on the Soissons-Rheims sector 



136 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




British troops and transport passing through a French village during the last German offensive 



est possible hurt upon the enemy Our men 
rushed m to the positions thus surrendered. 
As the Germans came on in successive waves, 
after their accustomed tactics, they were cut 
down by our machine guns and rifle fire. Now 
and then in their impetuosity our men would 
not wait for the oncoming horde but rushing 
over the top would meet and overwhelm 
them on their way. At every point the 
assailants were repulsed, except in a patch of 
woods where they were able to drag up some 
machine guns into our lines, but even this 
triumph was short-lived, and, when the 
work quieted down on other parts of the line, 
our artillery took up this particular spot 
and drove him forth. It was a stiff day's 
fight but when it ended the enemy had been 
effectively stopped and our men of the 
"Rainbow Division" shared the glory of the 
victory equally with the French. 

Elsewhere on the Marne other Americans 
had been in the battle. Part of the 28th 
Division, which as yet had not met the shock 
of battle, was near Dormans, where the Ger- 
mans had some days before made their only 
crossing of the river. They were too few 
to stop the foe, but the fight they put up 



won them the admiration of the whole army. 
The 3rd Division, too, which now after 
its success at Chateau-Thierry had begun 
to take on the airs of true veterans, was in 
the thick of the fight. Its artillery blocked 
the enemy in determined efforts to cross the 
river, which at that point is but about 150 
feet wide, and demolished the boats and the 
pontoon bridges with which he tried to effect 
the crossing. 

With the German line thus effectively 
stopped the French and Americans in their 
turn attacked on July i8th on a 28-mile 
front reaching from the Aisne to the Marne. 
The tactical situation m that neighborhood 
showed a deep salient held by the German 
troops on which Chateau-Thierry was the 
southern apex with Soissons and Rheims 
as the other two points in the triangle. Each 
arm in the triangle was, roughl}' speaking, 
about 25 miles long. The determined Ger- 
man offensive which had ended a few days 
before, nominally directed by the Crown 
Prince but in fact under the command of 
General Ludendorff, had gained this territory, 
but, being checked, had left the Germans in a 
perilous position. A salient of this character. 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



137 



having a narrow opening, exposes the troops at 
its lower end to being cut off by a superior ad- 
versary attacking on either side. This adver- 
sary can, if his strength is equal to the task, push 
together the ends of the sahent as one draws 
up the strings at the mouth of a bag, thereby 
enclosing all the troops which have been un- 
able to sHp out before the orifice is closed. 
This was precisely what General Foch at- 
tempted and with a great measure of success. 

While the French and American troops 
were engaged at what has come to be known 
as the Rheims salient, other attacks were 
made by the British and French troops at 
two other points on the line. We may, for the 
present, defer discussion of these movements, 
although they were ultimately of the greatest 
value in effecting the defeat of the German 
Army, and confine our attention to those 
strokes which were delivered either by the 
French and Americans acting together, or 
by the Americans alone. 

When the great Allied offensive of July i8th 
opened — the offensive which was destined not 
to be checked until it had forced the abject 
surrender of the entire German Army — the 
first blow was delivered by the army of 
General Mangin with French and American 
detachments against the right, wing of the 
Crown Prince, under command of General 
Von Hutier in front of Soissons. The fightmg 
had been hard there for days with the Ger- 



mans on the offensive. But when at the 
shrill call of the whistle along the lines the 
Allied forces went over the top at daybreak 
on the day set, the struggle that followed 
dwarfed all previous battles. That was a 
Thursday. Not until Saturday was there 
the slightest let-up m the advance and in the 
fighting. Relief parties with food followed 
up the fighting line, and stretcher bearers, 
gathering the wounded, reported that they 
found hundreds of men whose injuries, how- 
ever serious, did not pain them enough to 
keep them awake in the face of the complete 
exhaustion of the prolonged struggle. They 
slept soundly where they fell. The ground 
over which the Americans advanced was 
partly wooded and partly open fields of 
grain. The woods were cut to pieces by the 
tornado of shell fire, and the growing grain, 
just ripening at this season and so necessary 
to the starving world of Europe, was trodden 
down beneath the feet of the tramping and 
fighting thousands. Everywhere, through 
the fields and in the woods, were bodies 
alike of the assailants and of the defenders 
of the position. A correspondent who fol- 
lowed the troops tells of coming to a German 
machine-gun nest, sheltered by wicker work 
filled in with earth. In front lay three dead 
Americans, evidently part of the platoon 
that had charged the position. The gun 
was silent now and about it were piled the 




The bridge across the Marne at Chateau-Thierry 



138 



UNITED S 1\A 1^ E S IN THE GREAT WAR 




ng to meet the advancing Germans in the Battle ut ric.iul; 



bodies of the German soldiers who had 
manned it. All through the woods and in the 
fields were scattered nests of this character. 
Snugly sheltered in a pit behind a rampart 
two or three German gunners could mow down 
scores of the attacking forces before the men 
still left in line could sweep over the parapet 
and destroy them. In cases of this sort 
there was no quarter for the machine gunners. 
American soldiers reported that too often 
the enemy would operate his. gun unflinch- 
ingly, shooting down scores of our men as 
they approached and then at the last moment, 
when capture was inevitable, appear smil- 
ingly on the parapet with hands up and the 
cry of "Kamerad!" 

In such case, and it was the normal case, 
no mercy was shown. 




A typical scene along a road leading to the front in France 



In three days' fighting on this sector the 
French and Americans had penetrated the 
enemy's hne to a distance of six miles, were 
established in front of Soissons, and had cut the 
enemy's hne of communication to Chateau- 
Thierry. In the meantime, they had pressed 
the attack at the latter town, driving the 
Germans out of the northern section of it 
which they had held and penetrating the 
salient to the northward. On the American 
right flank English and Italian troops were 
cooperating to the southwest of Rheims. 
They were pressing into the salient and it 
was becoming only too apparent to the enemy 
that unless he desired to lose all of his army 
that was then in the lower end of that pocket 
he must not stop to fight but must get out, 
and stand not on the order of his going. To 
this polic}^ indeed he 
had recourse. The 
Germans throughout 
the war demonstrated 
themselves to be train- 
ed strategists and sel- 
dom hesitated to re- 
treat when they saw 
the safety of their army 
imperiled by continu- 
ing in a position that 
was seriously menaced. 
The salient, therefore, 
became the scene of a 
steady withdrawal of 
the Germans, who pro- 
tected their troops by 
rearguard fighting and 
who never at any time 
permitted their retreat 
to be turned into a 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



139 





*<^ - 


*ii^' 






[M|l 


HN^^-~ ' 


|iyJB^^^ 


M^^^'^ 


" 


'^^m 


lAgH 






-. 


^^^^if^^i^^m 



A glimpse of the orderly British retreat before the advancing Girmans during the Battle of Picardy 



rout. It was not territory which lent itself 
readily to the needs of a retreating army, for 
it was interspersed with small streams which 
had to be crossed, and there was but one 
railroad that could be utihzed for the trans- 
port of troops and that was cut early by the 
advancing Americans. 

The action had hardly been in progress 
more than four days when it became evident 
to the soldiers fighting it and to the world 
that was watching them, that the Germans 
were beaten so far as that territory was 
concerned. They had indeed a great and 
powerful military machine. But General 
Foch and Pershing had forged a bigger one. 
It was a wonderful week in the world's 
history. At its beginning the 
Germans had hoped, and with 
apparent reason, that before 
its end they would be well on 
the road to Paris. Instead of 
that, baffled and beaten, they 
were retreating all along the 
line. 

It was the good fortune of 
our American troops to take a 
most prominent and effective 
part in winning this victory. 
Their fighting at Chateau- 
Thierry was among the most 
gallant records of the war, 
and for years to come Ameri- 
can tourists will go to see the 
remnants of that once beauti- 
ful river town, and study the 
streets through which our boys 
trod and the river banks on 
which they left their bodies. A forest full of dead 
Edwin L. James, an American Command 



correspondent on the spot, tells of the way 
in which a httle village adjacent to this town 
was taken by the American troops: 

Nothing more typically American could be imagined 
than the way in which we took a position yesterday af- 
ternoon north of Epieds. The Germans had intrenched 
along a roadway with a large number of machine guns. 
The terrain on both sides of the road was most difficult 
and seemed to mean certain death to infantrymen 
advancing up the road. Soon up that road came ten 
automobiles of a well-known American minor make. 
On each were one or two machine guns. Half a mile 
from the begmnmg of the German nests they got into 
action and went up the road at top speed, spurting 
streams of bullets on either side. The Germans stood 
until the cars were almost upon them, and seeing little 




Germans lay thus along the Oise — the price the German High 
paid for their brief triumph in the Battle of Picardy 



I40 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




licnch and British soldiers brigaded together, resting after a hard-fought battle 



chance of "kamerading" to the cavalcade beat a re- 
treat. The cars, returning, met the infantrymen going 
up to occupy the position they had cleared and to 
move on. The operation was completely successful, 
only two of the cars failing to come back. The Amer- 
ican General at once christened the outfit "Ford's 
Cavalry." Stories of this exploit gave rise to an 
erroneous report that American cavalry had been used, 
in action. 

By the first of August the Germans had 
been pushed across the Ourcq with the Amer- 
icans hard upon their heels, and the enemy 
was making as fast as possible for the banks 
of the River Vesle behind which he hoped 
to find a safer refuge. The fighting at the 
crossing of the first stream has been described 
by veterans as possibly unexcelled for bitter- 
ness by any during this savage campaign. 
On the German side were involved the veteran 
Imperial Prussian Guard who had been held 
to be the most formidable of all the Kaiser's 
fighters, and they did fight. We used to 
read, during the progress of the war, of Ger- 
man gunners chained to their guns lest they 
might run away, but our men who swept 
over the positions held by the Imperial Guard 
reported that these gallant soldiers of the 
Kaiser had to be killed at their guns for they 
would neither cease firing nor surrender. 
Just outside of Chateau-Thierry, on a hill 
known as Hill 200, stood a big heliograph 
tower — dating back to the time of Napoleon's 



campaign and built by order of that great 
soldier. Here the Germans were guilty of a 
characteristic act of treachery. From the: 
top of the tower waved a big Red Cross flag, 
but notwithstanding this appeal for immunity 
which was heeded for some time by the 
Americans, they mounted there two machine 
guns with which they opened fire on the 
American troops when they came within 
range. Having no artillery at hand the 
Americans detailed snipers to pick off" the 
men who were serving the guns. This in 
due time was accomplished and when an 
American detachment charged the tower 
and mounted its stairs, the German gunners 
were found dead at the side of their weapons. 
The character of the German defeat and 
the losses sustained by the enemy are well 
indicated in this story from the pen of an eye 
witness: 

Saturday's withdrawal of the Germans before our 
never-lessening pressure took them at midnight across 
the river and mto strong hilled positions on the north- 
ern bank. There they placed many hundreds of ma- 
chine guns ranging on the river, and trained their 
artillery to lay down barrages on the stream. Two 
fresh Guard divisions were placed in front of the Amer- 
icans, and the bridges were destroyed behind the fleeing 
foe. At midnight the enemy thought he had a new 
line. He had for a few hours. At 4 o'clock a part of 
the famed fighting unit stepped from the woods on the 
southern bank, leaped into the stream which is about 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 

two feet deep, and got to the other 
bank before the Germans were aware 
of it. But by the time all were over, 
the machine guns cut loose and the 
barrage swept them mercilessly. 

They held twenty minutes and had 
to come back. But the Germans 
were all wrong if they thought the 
Americans were through. At 5:15 
another dash was made, and after 
bloody fighting this, too, was driven 
back across the stream. 

In the meanwhile our engineers 
brought up two bridges, with every 
piece of wood cut and fitted before- 
hand, and threw them across the 
stream. At 7 o'clock four companies 
made the dash. To say they stayed 
across makes a short story of valiant 
resistance. The Germans put down 
a barrage behind them along the 
stream and mowed them down with 
machine guns from their trees, from 
behind rocks, and from bushes. 

While the situation was becoming 
precarious for these men big plans 
were executed behind them, and at 8 o'clock the 
grand rush started. It put thousands of Americans 
across the river by 10 o'clock. By this time our 
artillery was locating the Germans, and field guns 
on the south bank were shooting point blank into 
the Hun machine-gun nests. Our men got set on the 
northern bank and started for the hills lining the stream. 
After half an hour of the bitterest sort of fighting we 
got deep into these positions, and the enemy broke 
and ran down the northern side of the hills and over a 
valley to another series of hills near. 

By this time Americans were across the river in a 
dozen places. By noon they 
had captured Sergy, and two 
hours later had Seringes. The 
Germans then began a with- 
drawal all along the line they 
had expected to hold. It was 
the first charge of the Ameri- 
cans which had broken them. 
The German machine gunners 
in the trees were killed and the 
others fled. We brought back 
a few prisoners. That the Ger- 
mans intended to stand here is 
shown by pile after pile of am- 
munition we found where the 
guns had been hurriedly pulled 
out. 

Never have the AmericaYis 
done hotter fighting. Never did 
they show to better advantage. 
NeverdidtheHun fight nastier. 
It was not the deadly work of 
the machine guns in the trees 
and houses, and even in the German guns captured by the British and being used against the Germans 



141 



British hiavy artillery being liiirrieil forward td In Ip cluck the German advance in 
the Battle of Picardy 



churches, that awoke the wrath of our men. It 
was not the terrific barrage that angered them. 
But when they saw Hun snipers kill their wounded 
comrades then they saw red and made the enemy 
pay. 

Time after time the Germans played machine guns 
on the stretcher bearers. I saw their wounded, and 
they told me. One overloaded truck came in with 
wounded and reported that a German airplane had 
swept low and dropped a bomb which destroyed an 
open truck carrying wounded. The driver and two 
wounded men were killed. Stretcher bearers wading 




142 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Carriages, cars, lorries, and light railways all rushing ammunition to the front for the big guns 



the river with helpless wounded were fired on bv 
German snipers in the hills beyond. 

The Hun left nothing undone to make the Americans 
regret their audacious and gallant charge. He did 
not succeed. 

Fere-en-Tardenois, Fismes, Chateau de 
Fere and all the territory between the Marne 
and the Vesle was taken by the French, 
Americans, Italians, and British by the end 
of the first week in August. The Germans 
by that time had been driven back of the 
Vesle, and obviously were going to be forced 
to continue their retreat beyond the Aisne. 
Their losses had been prodigious. They 
were able to move most of their men who were 
not disabled out of the salient, but thej^ had 
neither time nor facilities for the removal of 
the enormous accumulations of military 
stores, which had been sent in to accompany 
what they had expected would be a triumph- 
ant march upon Paris. Mile after mile of 
ashes and debris of burned stores was passed 
by the advancing American troops. Food 
the Germans clung to with desperation, and 
had been able, for the greater part, to remove, 
but ammunition, guns, clothing, parts of 
wagons, trucks, and airplanes were all found 
heaped up and destroyed as far as time would 
perrnit. _ After the fashion of advancing 
armies in this day they had built a narrow- 



gauge railway behind their front lines for the 
transportation of stores, and along this were 
distributed enough rails to extend the line 
as far as Bordeaux, and ties and other con- 
stituent parts of a railroad which showed 
that it was their purpose to widen it to 
standard gauge. Evidently the Germans 
had never expected to be driven out of this 
part of France once they had gained their 
foothold. 

In this retreat the Germans showed great 
fertility of resource in concocting those 
cowardly and deadly devices for the murder 
of pursuing enemies, for which they became 
noted. It was nothing less than murder, 
for the men who laid the traps were out of 
reach of any attack from those who suffered. 
Ammunition was left piled and so arranged 
that it would explode two days after the 
retreating enemy had vanished. Infernal 
machines which would be touched off by the 
step of a man were in dugouts and buried 
under the highwaj's. Wires over which 
an advancing soldier would trip were con- 
nected with explosives which would blow 
him into atoms. It was necessaiy for the 
pursuing troops to be always on their guard 
against deadly devices of this nature. 

Thereafter the fighting of the Americans 
in what had been the Chateau-Thierry salient. 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




A huge French cannon on the Somme camouflaged from airplane observation by the structure of branches erected over it and by 

the ingenious painting of the muzzle 




A French cannon on the Somme partially Inuied and comeaUd fidni enemy observation 



144 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



but which had lost all the characteristics of 
a salient being thoroughly flattened out, was 
one steady series of victories. The enemy 
was driven successively beyond the Ourcq, 
the Vesle, and the Aisne. Our men took in 
rapid succession Morlaincourt, Juvigny, the 
highway from Soissons to St. Quentin, and 
forced a German retirement along a front of 
more than ninety miles. In a multiplicity 
of minor engagements which need no enu- 
meration here the American forces were 
uniformly successful, as were the British 
and French on their flanks, for now had begun 
that great German retreat which the people 
of the Fatherland were assured was m accor- 
dance with plans and intended for strategic 
purposes only, but which in fact was the 
certain precursor of the collapse that followed. 

For everywhere the Allies were winning. 
Though this volume is designed mainly to 
tell of the part played by the American armies 
in the war, a passing reference to the simul- 
taneous operations of the other allies is 
necessary to make the story of the swift rush 
of the war to its end understandable. 

To the west, then, of the Soissons-Rheims 
salient in which the Americans were doing 
most of their fighting, was at the beginning 
of August another, but more shallow, pro- 
jection of the German Hnes into the Allied 
territory. Into this the British had been 



edging their way in a series of small engage- 
ments that had attracted little attention 
until Sir Douglas Haig made a decided ad- 
vance, driving the enemy back on a line ex- 
tending from Montdidier to Compeigne, 
and beginning a forward movement which 
like that of the French more to the eastward 
was destined to proceed without serious check 
until the end. On beyond Arras the "Tom' 
mies" pressed, smashing into the Hindenburg 
line, capturing Bapaume, Albert, and the 
famous Queant switch, a notable German 
defensive work. The French, meantime, were 
keeping pace with them, and by the middle 
of September the battle line across France 
which had so long shown a menacing sag 
down to the south, toward Paris was straight- 
ening out, and began to parallel the Belgian 
border and at no great distance. True, still 
back of that line and in the hands of the 
Huns were cities and towns of strategic im- 
portance which the French earnestly desired 
to liberate. Lille was there, the martyr of 
French cities whose people were forced to 
endure such sufferings as no enemy short ot 
an Apache Indian ever inflicted upon a help- 
less population. There too was Douai, a 
railroad centre of vital military importance; 
Cambrai, centre of the great French iron 
industry which it was the intention of the 
Germans now to steal as in 1871 they had 




ScvLii luinJiLiJ .ukI tifty German prisoners captured by the French at Plessis le Roye when they came to the aid of the British 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



145 




A Canadian battalion led by Scottish musicians returning to camp after practice 
march 



and shell craters, and other 
cross-fire from machine guns 
the other elements fought des- 
perately against odds. In this 
and later objectives, from Oc- 
tober 6th to October i8th, our 
2nd Corps captured more than 
6,000 prisoners and advanced 
over thirteen miles. The spirit 
and aggressiveness of these di- 
visions have been highly prais- 
ed by the British commander 
under whom they served." 

While referring to this mat- 
ter of praise from the veteran 
commanders of the European 
armies with whom our boys 
— all unused to war — were serv- 
mg, it seems well worth while 
to reproduce the official trib- 
ute paid to them by General 
Mangin for their service in 
France duringjuly and August: 



stolen the iron fields of Briey; St. Quentin 
and Laon, the former a beautiful mediaeval 
town which the Roches destroyed, the latter 
a railroad centre to which they clung with 
desperation. 

But step by step the British and Frencn 
lines moved forward until all these points 
and the territory back of them passed into 
AUied hands. In this progress the American 
army was not wholly unrepresented. The 
27th and 30th divisions held the place of 
honor alongside the 
Australians of Haig's 
Army in a fierce as- 
sault at St. Quentin 
at a spot where the 
canal passes under a 
ridge through a tun- 
nel. General Pershing 
says of these opera- 
tions in his, report: 
"The 30th "Division 
speedily broke 
through the main line 
of defense for all its 
objectives, while the 
27th pushed on im- 
petuously through the 
main line until some 
of its elements reached 
Gouy. In the midst 
of the mass of trenches 



Officers, Noncommissioned Officers, and Soldiers of the 
American Army: 

Shoulder to shoulder with your French comrades, 
you threw yourselves into the counter-ofFensive begun 
on July 18. You ran to it as if going to a feast. Your 
magnificent dash upset and surprised the enemy, and 
your indomitable tenacity stopped counter-attacks by 
his fresh divisions. You have shown yourselves to be 
worthy sons of your great country and have gained the 
admiration of your brothers in arms. 

Ninety-one cannon, 7,200 prisoners, immense booty, 
and ten kilometers of reconquered territory are your 




British reinforcements being 1 



I tried to the front on one of the light railways built by the 
soldiers themselves 



146 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




British field guns hastily swung into position to hold up the German advance in the Battle of Bicardy 



share of the trophies of this victory. Besides this, you 
have acquired a feeling of your superiority over the 
barbarian enemy against whom the children of liberty 
are fighting. To attack him is to vanquish him. 

American comrades, I am grateful to you for the 
blood you generously spilled on the soil of my country. 
I am proud of having commanded you during such 
splendid days and to have fought with you for the 
deliverance of the world. 

At this time the Grand Cross of the Legion 
of Honor was conferred on General Pershing 
and personal congratulations were extended 




British troops waiting in a support trench to repel the Germans in case they break 
through the front-line trenches 



to him and his troops by King George, King 
Victor Emanuel of Italy, the Premiers of 
France, Great Britain, and Italj^ and the 
Chief of Staff of Japan. 

It is greatly to be hoped, despite all this 
well-earned compliment, that as the careful 
study of the progress of this war proceeds 
among our people they will refrain from exag- 
geration of the American part in it, and give 
due credit to the gallantry and devotion of 
the people of the nations that sustained its 
burden for four long years before we entered 
upon the conflict. Discussion 
of "Who won the war.'"' will 
always be profitless so long as 
there is an effort to make the 
answer confer especial credit 
upon any one nation. For if 
we look fairly at the record we 
shall discern the following facts 
that do not admit of contra- 
vention : 

Upon France, of course, fell 
the heaviest burden and to 
France, beyond doubt, is due 
the greatest meed of glory. 
The blood of her devoted sol- 
diers was shed without stint. 
Their courage inspired the 
fighting men of every nation, 
and their heroism fills a page 
of history that will long be 
glorious. The River Marne, 
the scene of two decisive bat- 
tles, will bulk large in history 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



147 




through all time to come, and though but a 
slender stream unvexed by commerce will hold 
its place with the greatest rivers of the world 
in the knowledge of men. But not even to 
France can sole credit for the overthrow of the 
Teutonic conspiracy against the world begiven. 

Had Belgium not re- 
sisted, at the certain cost 
of national martyrdom, 
the German invasion in 
August, 1 914, France 
would certainly have 
been overrun by the ene- 
my and the war won in 
the first three months ac- 
cordmg to the prear- 
ranged German plan. 

Had not Russia — poor, 
betrayed, anarchy-ridden 
Russia — mobilized with 
unexpected speed and 
rushed her enormous 
armies into East Prussia 
and Gahcia in the same 
month it would not have 
been necessary for Gen- 
eral Von Moltke to detach 
several divisions from the 
army invading France, 
and the first battle of the 
Marne might not have 
been won by the French. 



Had Italy stood by her alleged obligations 
under the Triple Alliance, had she even failed 
to give France early assurances that she 
would at least be neutral, huge French armies 
would have been tied up from the first guard- 
ing the Italian frontier, and France would 




A row of French iss's being placed along a roadside to hold up the German advance in 
the Battle of Picardy 



148 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




nsli troops in a c.i| 



have been unable to hold back the Boches 
until Great Britain could organize armies 
and get into action. 

Had Great Britain failed to revolutionize 
the precedents of centuries and become a 
great military power, and above all had she 
not thrown her indomitable and invincible 
navy into the struggle, keeping the seas 
closed to German commerce and open to all 



ships bearing food, 
munitions, and reen- 
forcements to the 
Allies the war would 
have unquestionably 
been lost. 

And finally, had not 
the United States 
aided enormously 
with such money sup- 
port as never before 
has been forthcoming 
from a single nation, 
with food, with explo- 
sives, with cannon, 
with deadly gas and 
all the other para- 
phernalia of war, and 
finally and above all 
with an army of such 
proportions as the 
■world never believed 
we could raise, despatched to the scene of 
action with a celerity that amazed our foes 
and our friends alike, and rushing into battle 
with an impetuous daring that swept all 
before them — had the United States failed 
of all these things then indeed German au- 
tocracy would have overwhelmed the world 
and democracy would have perished from 
the face of the earth. 



rust toward Cambrai 








Ml^i^- 






r*'t^-'S^>« y^^ ^^i 




^-^..^m^,, 



■tui^iikitiLu ..yM.-it^ 








Cage 



nil (_li I iiKin jirisoners taken bj- tbe British in the offensive of August, 1918. These men were all captured in one day 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



149 





■ ^ 


L' Hj^ 


. ...,„ .4 








M 


m 




1^^ Jb.^)^ 




1 


,ii 






BL^^IMIE 








HJPH 


^HRtHM 




I^^HI 




BHH 








^P 


''ICi-M'-.-^ 


^^ 




-. 


W 


^^^HB 


■ 


%>t'tv/^ 


» 




1 




^^^ 


^^ 


^ili 


m 


g^ij^ 


Hiig 


^J^IH 


p 




J3 



British cavalry entering a recently captured village near Arras 



After the naval battle off Santiago de Cuba 
in which the Spanish fleet was obliterated 
from the face of the ocean, and Spanish rule 
forever abolished in the islands of the West 
Indies,there arose an unfortunate controversy 
over the awarding of credit for the victory. 
Admiral Schley, who had been in actual com- 
mand of the fleet in action, settled all this 
with the sensible remark, "There is glory 
enough for all." So in time we think history 
will determine that to no one nation, but to 
all working and fighting together for the 
triumph of the right and the defense of democ- 
racy, is due the final victory. 

And so this volume, though in the main 
devoted to the story of American endeavors 
in the war, would be incomplete and fail to 
give an intelligent idea of the progress of the 
struggle if it did not atthe same 
time briefly outline what was 
being done by our associated 
nations on the long battle line. 

It became apparent very 
shortly after the forward move- 
ment that began at Chateau- 
Thierry had time to develop 
that the Germans were dis- 
heartened and pressed beyond 
their powers of resistance. 
Their retreat begun then was 
uninterrupted, though with no 
sign of demoralization. The 
grand strategy of General Foch, 
whose power as generalissimo 
was largely due to American 
suggestion and undoubtedly 
hastened the end of the war, 
was easily understandable to 
contemporary students of the 
war. In a general way, he 



took the plan of campaign of the Germans 
on invading France, reversed it, and ap- 
plied it to the task of driving them out. 
They had rushed through Belgium and 
into France in a grand left wheel, the pivot 
of their line being near Verdun and their 
right flank swinging around close to the 
western coast. It was as if a monstrous door 
was being swung open with its hinge at 
Verdun and its outer edge in Flanders. 
What Foch did was to swing this door back 
again though he set his hinge a little further 
to the east, in the Argonne region, and put in 
charge at that vital point the chief American 
army of whose deeds we shall tell in a later 
chapter. The door from the hinge to what 
we might call its centre panel was built up 
of American, Italian, and French soldierr, 




ring party passing a big gun just outside Arras 



15° 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 

Of the scenes at Ba- 
paume on the occasion 
oftheir second entrance 
Philip Gibbs writes: 

So far as I could see, the 
only difference since the 
enemy sprawled back here 
and stayed a little while 
and then was flung back 
again is that many bodies 
of gray-clad men lie among 
the shell craters, and that 
the roads and tracks are 
httered with dead horses, 
so that the air is pestilential 
with foul odors, and every- 
where among the old trenches and new, with their white, 
upturned chalk and the litter of barbed wire, are fresh 
German notice boards pointing the way to firing lines 
and observation posts and giving the directions of 
tracks — nach Mametz, nach Longueval, nach Ginchy. 
They had tried to camouflage some of their tracks by 
screens made of rushes, and had dug deep shelters under 
banks and in old trenches in order to escape from the 
harassing British fire. 

In shell craters and ditches lie their helmets, gas 
masks, rifles, and equipment, and here and there is the 
wreckage of a field gun or limber, untouched but aban- 
doned by the enemy in their flight, and strewn over all 
the ground are vast numbers of unexploded shells. 

All this tumult of the tortured earth, all these pits 
dug by shells, all this \v'\\d destruction of places ruined 
in the first year of the war and mangled ever since were 
strewn with relics of German life and German death, 



British troops hastily digging trenches on the Somme 



then began the joint Hnes of the French and 
British, then the British alone, and finally 
on the sandy dunes bordering the cold North 
Sea, in the little corner of their own country 
still left to them, the gallant Belgians. 

As this line swung to the north and east 
the enemy were pressed closer and closer to 
the Belgian border, and in the far west 
King Albert and his men extended their 
conquest oftheir own territory until suddenly 
came the German appeal for peace. 

Few of the British exploits were attended 
with more rejoicing than the recapture of 
Bapaume and Peronne. Both had been 
held by the British before and from both had 
they been driven out after desperate fighting. 




© Underwood & Underwood 

A mammoth British gun appropriately named, from the German point of view, " Kill Joy" 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



iSi 



newly littered here. Their great 
steel helmets punctured by bullets 
or torn like paper by shell splinters 
lay in thousands, with gas masks 
and rifles and cartridge belts and 
gray coats. 

Along every mile of the way lay 
rows of stick bombs, never used 
against the British, and dumps of 
unexploded shells, hideous in their 
potentiality. A few dead horses 
lay on each side of the tracks, as 
they had gone trudging up with the 
British transport before being shot. 
Beside one horse lay a dead white 
dog, the pet of the transport 
column. 

It was a moment of high and 
justifiable exultation when 
theBritish marched again into 
these desolated places which 
they had twice taken at the 
highest cost of life and blood 
but which this time they knew could not be 
taken away from them. Mr. Gibbs, most 
graphic of correspondents on the spot, de- 
scribes the scene thus: 

It is utterly true to say that our men are going for- 
ward with gladness and exultation. They know the 
risks ahead. There is nothing one can tell them about 
the horrors of war. They know its fearful fatigues, the 
beastliness of things, the stench and dust of the battle- 
field, the wicked snap of machine-gun bullets and the 
howl of the high velocities. 
But in spite of all that 
they are marching forward 
with a light in their eyes 
and eager looks, and whole 
armies are on the move 
with a grim kind of joy. 

It is an astounding pag- 
eant, these hundreds of 
thousands of men — Eng- 
lish, Welsh, Canadians, 
Scottish, and Australians 
— all moving in a lorrg, 
reaching tide with horses 
and guns and transport 
along tracks over old bat- 
tlefields, going forward 
mile by mile very slowly 
because of the surge of 
traffic over narrow ways, 
but never stopping. 

Dust rises from these 
moving legions in brownish 
clouds which the wind 
tosses above their steel 
helmets, and through this 
dust, in which the sun is 




Germans retreating in the fall of 1918 before the triumphantly advancing French, 
British, and American troops 



shining hotly, there is a vision of brown masses of men 
with the glint of steel on rifles and helmets and twink- 
ling colors, red and blue and green, of staff badges and 
pennons. 

Every man marches in a white mask of dust through 
which his eyes shine. Dispatch riders are threading 
their way through long lines of transport. The endless 
columns of lorries, field batteries, and gun horses are 
grotesque, like millers all floured from head to feet. 
The horses are superb and in splendid form, as though 
from an exhibition, and it goes to the heart to see 




A field diessing station on newly captuied giound The wounded are being brought in by 
German prisoners captured near Cambiai 



IS2 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



wd 


l&^iMiiili^M^^^^ 


mm 




M 




^^ 


M 




^ 


M 


1^^ 




1^ 


m 


^^9 


^^^I^^^^^M 


^B 


m 


K^BtaB 


viy^^^wS^y^ Ni'^^"^^'^^'^^^ 


lIlBHii 


^Pi 


^^i^DB^nFuffl 


iSSS^9IS!^^9i^fej| 


m!N 


H 



These men, among the last of Germany's reserves, were on their way to Ham to 
reentorce the German hnes 



so many lying dead on the fields after the recent 
battles. 

There is a great music of war over all this scene. 
Scottish battalions go forward to the fighting line led 
part of the way by their pipers, and across the battle- 
fields come the wild cry of the' pibroch and the drone of 
many pipes. The English battalions are marchmg with 
brass bands playing old English marching tunes, and, 
between whiles, merry bursts of ragtime. The crunch- 
ing of gun wheels over rough ground, officers shouting 
orders to their men, the hooting of lorry horns and 
motor horns, and an incessant hum of airplanes over- 
head all make up a symphony which has a song of 
Tiumph in its theme. 



On the Erench front, where 
the advancewas equally rapid 
and the succession of victories 
no less encouraging, the out- 
standing fact that impressed 
the observers with the armies 
wasthebarbarousand uncivil- 
ized determination of the flee- 
ingGermans to work upon the 
countr}- from which they were 
driven the utmost possible 
damage, and wherever possi- 
ble damage that itwould take 
years to repair, if indeed it 
could ever be repaired.' Loot- 
ing was to some extent the 
crimeof the individual soldier, 
though there is not lackingevi- 
dence that it was encouraged 
by officers in authority. But 
the desolation of the country was ordered by 
high command. There was found an official 
message from the front declaring that the pur- 
suing Allieswould "find forwinteronly ground 
completely bare and devastated," and further 
that "the abandonment of this sector has 
been conducted with our customary care, 
and we have been able, without being inter- 
rupted, to take away from this region every- 
thing that would be of use to the adversary." 
And in an article written by a Colonel 
Gaedke was found this explanation of the 
German purpose: "A decisive struggle will 




Germany's last reserves being gathered together in St. Quentin in April, 1918, for Germany's last supreme effort 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



155 



be made more difficult for the 
enemy by the devastation of 
the regions that now form a 
buckler before the German 
armies and will contribute 
to their successful defense." 

Devastated they certainly 
were. From Ham the Ger- 
mans took as loot everything 
of the slightest value, even 
loading army lorries with 
furniture for the "folks at 
home." When they fled they 
had filled the town with com- 
bustibles which they ignited 
over electric wires provided 
for the purpose, and the town 
was utterly destroyed, al- 
though it had survived the 
shellfire of actual war. 
Noyon, too, was destroyed, 
not in the course of its de- 
fense, but out of pure ma- 
lignancy as the Huns fled. 
It had a town hall dating back to the Mid- 
dle Ages, which they mined and demol- 
ished. In every town from Rheims to Ypres 
churches and cathedrals, especially those 
possessing antique beauty and therefore 
irreplacable, were the objects of German van- 
dalism. 

In the end, of course, all the cost of this 
systematic vandalism will be assessed against 




The ruins of a French Red Cross warehouse which the Germans captured and 
looted of 50,000 francs worth of bandages and other supphes many of which had 
come from America 



the German people. But those who ordered 
it, and those who Committed the infamous 
outrages, will not be those who will pay. 
The charge will be borne by generations to 
come, but if the burden shall have the effect 
of teaching them the criminality and folly 
of provoking such a war as that from which 
the world has now slowly to recuperate it 
will not be wholly fruitless. 




Some British Tommies dodging a big shell in No Man's Land 



154 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Drauri h> .\l;,ii.ux Kiirulill, irum material supplied by the Coxswain of the SAari— courtesy British Bureau of Information 

Commander Loftus Jones of the British ship Shark taking charge of the only weapon left in commission, the deck torpedo 
tube, after his leg had been shot away and after enemy torpedoes had hit his ship fonvard and smashed in her bows at the 
same time a shell blew up the forecastle 



CHAPTER VIII 



THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION — CAUSES FOR THE REVOLT — GERMAN INTRIGUE 

INVOLVED THE SHIFTING CONTROL OF RUSSIAN AFFAIRS KERENSKY, 

LENINE, AND TROTZKY SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA RISE OF THE CZECHO- 
SLOVAKS THE allies' SIBERIAN EXPEDITION THE MURMAN PENINSULA 

POSITION OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT THE OUTLOOK 




T; 



^HE story of 
the distinc- 
tively mili- 
tary events 
of the vi'ar may pro- 
fitably be inter- 
rupted here to give 
some consideration 
to the amazing social 
upheaval in Russia 
which overthrew the 
throne of the Roma- 
noff family, broke 
down the bureauc- 
racy which had long 
ruled the land, swept 
away the corrupt 
and treacherous 
army officers who betrayed the stoHd, brave, 
and cruelly deceived peasants to their defeat 
and destruction and brought down the whole 
Russian fabric in a debacle from which it, at 
the moment of writing, shows no signs of 
recovery. 

Volumes will be written in explanation of 
the reasons for the Russian revolt and still 
fall far short of giving the whole indictment 
against the men who governed and plundered 
in the name of the feeble and impotent Czar. 
Volumes will be written on the agonies of 
Russia in revolution, and still fail for many 
years to come in making clear the rights and 
wrongs of the situation in that hapless land, 
which is to-day without representation at the 
Versailles conference at which its fate will be 
settled, because there is no recognized 
government in Russia qualified to appoint 
delegates. 

And yet the Russian people did their part 
for the Allies in the early days of the war. 
It was not the fault of the common soldier 
that the plans of his superiors opened con- 
venient gaps in his lines of defense at the 



very points most convenient for the foe to 
attack. It was not the fault of Ivan that 
the ammunition for his cannon, when it 
reached the battlefield at all which was un- 
usual, proved to be just a fraction of an inch 
out of the way to fit his guns, but by a queer 
coincidence fitted exactly the artillery of the 
pursuing Germans. Nor were the soldiers 
drawn from the farms responsible for the 
curious accidents by which sorely needed 
reenforcements seemed always to be sent 
to points where they were not useful. 

The United States, which had been first 
to recognize the revolutionary government 
in Russia after the overthrow of the Czar, 
was destined to encounter in its friendliness 
to what had been hoped to be a popular 
government an endless amount of perplexity 
and peril.* For as has been already made 
clear, the Russian revolutionary administra- 
tion passed by a series of military and political 
revolts into the hands of the most extreme 
of the revolutionary forces. It was greatly 
to the credit of our nation that it was early 
to recognize the endeavor of the people of 
Russia to establish for themselves a popular 
government. We could hardly have done 
otherwise, for it must be remembered that 
the United States itself is founded upon 
revolution, and revolt against constituted 
authorities cannot in itself constitute an 
offense in our eyes. 

It is for that reason that, even after the 
Russian government had passed from the 
stage of an orderly endeavor to enforce 
democratic principles upon a turbulent people 
and had become a government founded 
wholly on force and maintained entirely by 
terror, the United States still held aloof from 
any efforts to interfere with the Russian 



*For an account of the early stages of the Russian revolution 
see "Nations at War," p. 241 et seq. 



iSS 



156 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




s for tlif (ifL-at Adventure 



to cut away the fabric of deceit and disguise 
with which the Germans have endeavored 
to envelop the question of responsibiHty for 
the original outbreak of war. Day by day 
facts have been brought out which have fixed 



people in their eflForts to work out their own 
pohtical regeneration. 

Perhaps nothing connected with the great 
war is so thoroughly enshrouded in mystery 
as has been the progress of the Russian revo- 
lution. The world has been fairly well able that responsibility clearly where it belongs 

upon the German Kaiser and 
the militarists by whom he 
was surrounded. But over 
suffering and bleeding Russia 
hangs an impenetrable pall of 
secrecy. That this is so is as 
much due to the nature of the 
Russian people as it is to the 
rigid censorship with which 
those responsible for the anar- 
chistic conditions now pre- 
vailing have surrounded and 
concealed the facts. The 
enormous proportions of Rus- 
sia, the prodigious distances 
between its towns, its wide 
steppes thinly populated by 
people not used to self-expres- 
sion, the comparative lack of 
organs of public opinion, and 
the rigid rule which has long 

wd, none the worse fur their voyage, about to land on Frciicli soil since blotted OUt any SCm- 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Russian soldiers during the original revolution going to the Duma for a patriotic demonstration carrying banners bearing the 
inscription "Down with monarchy! Long live the democratic republic!" 

blance of independence among those existing 
made any clear understanding of the Russian 
situation almost impossible to an outsider. 
Even such matters as the continued existence 



straightway set themselves to plunder the 
country which they had deprived of any 
organized defensive force. In their dumb 
and inarticulate fashion the masses of the 
Russian people manifested their resentment 



or the assassination of the Czar and his family, 

which it might have been 

thought would have been duly 

recorded, are left at this writing 

in some doubt. All that the 

world knows of Russia is that 

after the treaty of Brest- 

Litovsk, the circumstances at- 

t en ding which have been 

already described, the internal 

condition of the country went 

from bad to worse, while it 

ceased to be for foreign 

nations a government to which 

any attention could be paid. 

Germany thereafter looked 
upon Russia merely as a fat 
goose ready for the picking. 
Her authorities discarded the 
creed upon which they had 
entered upon negotiations with 
Russia — "No annexations and 

no indemnities and Czecho-Slovak soldiers going up a river in Siberia on a naval launch 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



of this German plan of spoliation. But the 
Bolsheviki were thoroughly intrenched in 
power, and their principal leaders, Lenine 
and Trotzky — real names, Ulyanov and 
Braunstein — were either the paid tools of 
Germany, or were ready to concede all to 
Germany in order to secure German aid in 
mamtammg their own power and securing the 
complete destruction of all that had con- 
stituted the Russian state or the orderly 
Russian society. 



they at once found that as they had opposed 
others while they were out of power, now 
they were in turn opposed, being in power. 
And their answer to this situation was a 
repudiation of all of the more ethical ideas 
which they had been preaching. The broth- 
erhood of man disappeared in a series of the 
most cold-blooded massacres. Socialism, 
which is an ideal state of strictly ordered 
relations between its people, vanished in true 
anarchy. A fundamental complaint of those 




Some Russian soldiers who have joined the Czecho-Slovak army engaged in the peaceful occupation of peeling potatoes 



What the Bolsheviki stood for can be 
summed up in a few words. For many 
years the essence of their preaching has been 
"a dictatorship of the proletariat and the 
peasantry." They are utterly opposed to 
any compromise between the working classes, 
industrial as well as agricultural, and that 
great middle class which the French call the 
bourgeoisie. They are communists and syn- 
dicalists of the purest water. Along these 
lines they had worked out in theory the 
remedy for every social and economic ill, 
and now being established in power they 
purposed putting these theories to a practical 
test, no matter what the difficulty. But 



who first overturned the Russian government 
was the prevalence of the death penalty for 
political offenses. The Bolsheviki, while still 
protesting against the death penalty, revived 
it in the form of assassination or wholesale 
massacres ordered in star-chamber council. 

Theoretically, they proposed the most 
absolute democracy. The army was to be 
controlled not by its officers, but by com- 
mittees of its soldiers. Industries and finan- 
cial institutions were to be managed by the 
employees. All government was to be vested 
in a central body called the Council of 
Workmen's and Soldier's Delegates, or more 
briefly the Soviet. 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



159 



What happened was that as Lenine and 
Trotzky controlled the Soviet they controlled 
the whole government, and no czar, nor any 
despot of history, ever inflicted upon a 
suffering people a more tyrannous personal 
rule than theirs. 

There was left to Russia no semblance of a 
responsible government. Neither for the 
remnants of the old regime nor for the revo- 
lutionists themselves was there protection 
for life or for property. Assassination had 
been the weapon of the despots. It now 
became the defense of the down-trodden. 
Repeated efforts were made upon the life of 
Lenine and other members of the adminis- 
tration. To defend themselves the rulers 
made the possession of a weapon by an in- 
dividual ground for his immediate execution 
without trial, while to criticize the govern- 
ment was reason for immediate imprison- 
ment. Gross oppression, of course, sprung 
from the existence of such a law. The agents 
of the government, and they were innumer- 
able, who desired to plunder a man, had but 
to accuse him falsely of having a weapon 
in his possession, in order to kill him with 
impunity; or, in rarely merciful moments, 
by alleging that he had criticized those in 



authority to send him to a distant concentra- 
tion camp, and work their will with his 
property and his family. The trials of 
those accused of sedition were farcical. 
Seldom was there an acquittal. Permission 
to put in a defense was frequently denied. 
Though in theory the accused were entitled 
to a jury trial, in fact on many occasions the 
judge would take the verdict out of the 
hands of the jury and himself condemn the 
accused to death. 

Largely because of the absence in Russia 
of any such sohd middle class as in France 
finally put an end to the Terror, the worst 
forms of Bolshevism increased and spread 
throughout the country until the whole land 
became a mere seething sea of anarchy. 
Meantime, the Germans were doing as they 
chose with the sections in their immediate 
front. On one pretext or another they 
ignored the provisions ofthe treaty which they 
had forced at Brest-Litovsk. They imposed 
upon subject provinces enormous penalties 
which were exacted in gold and which went 
far toward paying the German war expenses. 
Russia was deprived of at least one fourth 
of its area in Europe, and territory containing 
one third of its population was erected into 




A barge armed with machine guns, captured by the Czecho-S 



n tilt river north ot \ ladivostok, Russia 



i6o 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




I Publishers Photo Service 
An exact reproduction of a Bohemian village built in this country in connection with the Czecho-Slovak recruiting campaign ' 



normally independent states which were in 
fact under German control, and in which 
Germany at once began to enforce con- 
scription for its armies. The details of this 




© Pubi: 



The officers ol this Czecho-Slovak recruiting camp and their guests 



treaty ceased to be of anything except merely 
historical interest when the forces of Ger- 
many were defeated and compelled to sue for 
peace in November of 1918. For the first 
act of the Allies in granting 
the armistice at that time was 
to declare that this treaty 
would not be recognized. Un- 
doubtedly many features, such 
as the recognition of Ukrainia 
as an independent state, will 
remain in effect but not be- 
cause of their existence in the 
Brest-Litovsk convention. 
That died when German 
power was crushed. But from 
the moment it was signed the 
relations existing between the 
de facto Russian government 
and the belligerent nations, 
notably the United States, 
became so strained as to be 
hardly existent. The Germans 
pressing into Russian territory 
so menaced Petrograd that the 
capital was removed to Mos- 
cow. This seemed to be a 




Fifth Avenue, New \uik, du 



tul wirh the Hass nf tlir Allies during the 
known as the Avenue of the Allies 



luiirth Liberty Loan campaign and 



1 62 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




© Publishers Photo Servic 
A iLction of Camp Borglum, the headquarters of the Czecho-Slovak recruiting station 



sufficient precaution against foreign inter- 
ference, but soon domestic violence and 
outlawry proceeded to such an extent that 
the ambassadors of foreign nations refused 



longer to remain at the capital where their 
persons could not be protected. The British 
Embassy was sacked, in the absence of the 
ambassador, and the officer of the army in 
charge of it was killed. Am- 
bassador Francis of the United 
States, who clung to his post 
last of all of the foreign repre- 
sentatives, finally withdrew 
after expressing some caustic 
opinions as to the charac- 
ter of the government which 
failed to govern Russia. The 
town of Volgoda, to the east 
of Petrograd, was for a long 
period the seat of the ambas- 
sadorial activities. 

History knows of no such 
collapse of all forces of organ- 
ized society as that which 
befell Russia. The French 
revolution was readily under- 
standable, in comparison with 
the inextricably interwoven 
abuses and remedies, ambi- 
A section of the American Army in Siberia with their beef accompanying them tions and Catastrophes which 

on the hoof have attended what the whole 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



163 



world hopes may be in the end the birth of a 
Russian democracy. The world, of course, 
knows that for more than half a century the 
fires of revolt against the Czar, and the autoc- 
racy which he typified, had been smouldering 
in Russia and every now and then breaking 
out in flame. In all probability had this final 
outbreak come at a time when peace pre- 
vailed in Europe it would have been sup- 
pressed by outside aid, probably German 
aid, to the established monarchy. But it 
came at a time when Russia was absolutely 



they embarked upon an ambitious socialistic 
programme. All forests, mines, waters, and 
landed estates with their livestock, buildings, 
and machinery were declared the common 
property of the people. The prmcipal of 
sociahzation of all factories, and state control 
over all production and distribution was re- 
affirmed. All national loans issued under 
the Imperial, or the succeeding Kerensky 
government, were repudiated — this aff^ected 
the outer world very materially as the Russian 
national debt aggregated several bilhons 




Czecho-Slovak troops under General Simionov drawn up in front of the railroad station in Vladivostok, Russia 



isolated. The entrance of Turkey upon the 
war on the Teutonic side had closed the Dar- 
danelles to AlHed ships and to Russian ships. 
The latter could not go out to sell the enor- 
mous quantities of wheat and other food- 
stuffs which Russia produced, and which all 
Europe needed; the former could not enter 
the Black Sea to carryto Russia the munitions 
of war and the leadership which she craved. 
The only neighbor accessible to her was 
Germany — her enemy. The men desiring 
to seize upon Russian government saw their 
profit in making peace with Germany and 
thereby securing their elevation to power. 
In their eff"ort to administer internal aff'airs 



mostly held abroad and much of it in the 
United States. All the banks were national- 
ized, the final result of which was that their 
assets were seized by Lenine and Trotzky. 
The old army was demobilized and a new 
"red" army organized. The immediate re- 
sult of this was that a "white" army, en- 
listed by the opponents of the Bolshevist 
regime, made its appearance and civil war 
raged. All church property was sequestered; 
all private property rights in city real estate 
exceeding a certain maximum value were 
abrogated. The existing judicial system 
was overthrown and revolutionary courts 
established. A universal eight-hour day was 



i64 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



^l^^"**'*"'^--^ 


-m 


HBKta_ / jfi_^J^B ■ • • / 








¥~^ 


..] 


^^P 


• 


f 


■^ 





Landing an American officer's horse at Vladivostok, Russia 



instituted with a minimum wage. Every 
conceivable relation of man to man and to 
the state was regulated and the Bolshevist 
council capped the climax by making mar- 
riage obligatory, and providmg conditions 



under which partners for life could be forcibly 
selected without the acquiescence of both 
parties, and the arrangement ratified by 
state authorities. 

All these and a host of other forms of , 
regulation invasive of what \ 
had been always considered 
the rights of individuals were y 
seriously enacted by the 
Bolshevist government in the 
name of liberty. What pro- 
portion of them can ever be 
enforced the world has yet to 
learn. 

Meanwhile, the world looked 
on at the situation in Russia 
perplexed, amazed, and not a 
little horrified. To the great 
masses of the people it ap- 
peared that the whole nation 
was going down in blood-red 
chaos. This apprehension was 
due to the conflicting charac- 
ter of reports from the scene 
of this great social and eco- 
nomic struggle, and from the 
Colonel Marrows superintending the unloading of the above transport 1 fact that the forceS m pOWer 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



i6s 




Admiral Knight with marine and foreign officers reviewing American troops in Vladivostok 



there by their rigid exercise of the censorship 
had caused the rest of the world to utterly dis- 
trust as prejudiced and untrue all informa- 
tion coming out of Russia. Even the State 
Department of the United States had to 
admit a lack of precise information, and 
to report that for weeks at 
a time no word came through 
from Ambassador Francis 
while even such messages as 
came from him were deprived 
of great importance by the 
fact that he was not in touch 
with the government of the 
country to which he was ac- 
credited. 

Some outline of the social 
condition in Russia is given 
in the '.following extracts from 
a letter by a Russian woman 
long prominent in diplomatic 
society in Washington: 

It was bad enough before the 
March revolution, when our un- 
happy, half-witted Emperor, under 
the influence of his German wife, 
seemed to do everything possible to 



make people lose patience. But now we have a 
thousand anonymous potentates, the top ones paid 
by Germany, and the lower ones lured into supporting 
them by money, money, and money. 

The present Government has abolished all laws, all 
courts, the police, land ownership, all private real estate 




American Marines guarding the American Consulate in Vladivostok 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Major General William S. Graves, the commander of the American forces sent to Siberia to help to protect that country for 
Russia against the Germans from without and the Bolsheviki from within 



1 68 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




The cun^LstLil \Mter front of \ I i 'i\ t k with 35,000 bales of cotton set on fire by the Bolshevik! burning on the hillside in 

the background 




A Y. M. C. A. club car used by the Czecho-Slovaks at the front in Siberia 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



169 



in towns, all distinction of castes and grades in the army 
and navy. They have seized all the banks, are opening 
all the private safes, and confiscating all gold and silver 
found therein, though it had never been said before 
that it was criminal to have it. Of course, everything 
they "decree" is so mad that it is quite sure not to 
last forever, but the chaos they make 
will take centuries to forget. The 
country is going back to a savage 
state. And we will not live to wait 
for better times. . . •. 

On the pretense of equality they 
abolish all grades in the army and 
navy and make all posts elective by 
the simple soldiers. In most places 
it is understood as complete ex- 
termination, lynching of the officers, 
who, for being better educated; are 
under suspicion of being "counter- 
revolutionary." The highest . posts 
are occupied by elected soldiers who 
very often can hardly sign their 
names, and the former officers are 
made simple soldiers, with a soldier's 
pay of ^3.50 a month, and ordered 
to the lowest tasks, cleaning of the 
barracks, cooking food, taking care 
of the horses. 

Our great country could only 
exist when all the wheels of the 
Government were working in har- 
mony. Now everything is a perfect 
chaos. Everybody was willing to 
throw over the Czaristic Govern- 
ment, but not in order to change it 
for this one of loot, anarchy, and 
treason toward our allies! Ah, the 
shame, the disgrace, and the folly 
of it! 

The army, which now consists of 
young boys (the regular one is long 
ago killed), without any sense of 
duty, morals, and discipline, see 
their acquired "freedom" in the 
freedom to go home when they want 
to. And so all the trains, all the 
stations, are attacked and destroyed 
by this horde of savages, who kill 
engineers, if it seems to them the 
train goes too slowly, who martyrize 
the railway agents who tell them of 
the impossibility of starting their 
train, for there is another one com- 
mg toward them on the same track. 



who would like to help have had their firearms confis- 
cated, even the officers, even the highest generals. 
All the soldiers, etc., are armed and have become high- 
waymen. At any moment you can expect a number 
of them to come into your private lodging and, under 
the pretense of "perquisition," take away all your 




@ 1918 by the World's Work 
The Murman Coast and Archangel. An Allied expedition of British, French, and 
American troops is holding the Murman Coast and part of the railroad line south 
of it, chiefly to prevent its use as a naval and commercial outlet by Germany. 
Alexandrovsk is an open port the year round, due to the influence of the Gulf 
Stream. Archangel is accessible only in the summer 



As this human 
flood goes home without any organization, everything 
is looted and destroyed. 

Life in Petrograd is horrible — all the criminals, all 
the workmen, and demoralized soldiers rob the few 
cars that still bring some kind of products. In the 
very heart of the city, in daytime, you have your 



money and valuables. 

Maxim Gorky who is perhaps the most 
distinguished Russian to join the Bolshe- 
vists in the Russian daily paper Novaia 
Zhizn (New Life) which he edits, he, the 
novelist who above all Russian writers of 



clothes taken off your back literally. Just think that this period was able to speak with precise 
there is no police, nobody to call for help, for those knowledge of the peasant class and their 



170 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Prof. Thomas Masaryk, President of the Republic dl (.'/cclio-Slovakia, of 
which the temporary capitol was Washington, D. C, and whose permanent 
Capitol is Prague in Bohemia 



aspirations, appeared an article in which the 
following paragraphs gave a graphic idea 
of the situation prevailing among the peas- 
ants, and the rank and file in the army: 

All those who have studied the Russian villages of our 
days clearly perceive that the process of demoralization 
and decay is going on there with remarkable speed. 
The peasants have taken away the land from its owners, 
divided it among themselves, and destroyed the agri- 
cultural implements. And they are getting ready to 
engage in a bloody internecine struggle for the division 
of the booty. In certain districts the population has 



consumed the entire grain supply, 
including the seed. In other districts 
the peasants are hiding their grain un- 
derground for fear of being forced to 
share it with starving neighbors. This 
situation cannot fail to lead to chaos, 
destruction, and murder. 

There are numerous reports to the 
effect that the soldiers are dividing 
among themselves the military property 
of the country and committing unspeak- 
able acts of violence. Wild rumors 
are current about the troops returning 
from Asia Minor. It is said that they 
have brought with them into the Crimea 
a large number of "white slaves" and 
that there is in Theodosia a veritable 
slave market. The supply is so great 
that the price has fallen from loo or 
150 rubles to 15 or 30 rubles apiece. 

The Bolshevists, however, were 
not able to maintain their dicta- 
tion without very determined 
opposition both political and 
military. Always there was a 
party in the Soviet opposed to 
them and at times it narrowly 
approached control. Indeed, 
despite the veil of secrecy that 
was thrown about Russia, the 
evidence was complete that the 
dominant power was not able to 
maintain its authority by the 
normal methods of political agi- 
tation and the exercise of mili- 
tary force, but was obliged to 
resort to massacre and assas- 
sination. Switzerland and Fin- 
land became centres of conspir- 
acy. Every now and then some 
new aspirant for power would 
set up a government of his own 
in some distant section of the 
country, and indeed Russia was 
far extended enough to permit 
the establishment of very considerable mde- 
pendent states within its borders and out of 
easy reach of the government established 
at Petrograd. The Germans were not averse 
to encouraging these movements of secession 
from the general Russian state. Nothing 
would suit German purposes better than the 
destruction of the great power which in more 
orderly times had menaced her Eastern fron- 
tier, and the substitution therefor of a num- 
ber of small and weak independent states, 
many of which she could control through 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



171 



diplomatic astuteness. Accordingly, the 
creation of Ukrainia was followed by the 
erection of Esthonia, Lithuania, Livonia, 
Courland, Finland, and states which were 
to be formed out of Russian territory and 
under the dominion of either the Czecho- 
Slavs or the Jugo-Slavs. 

The story of the former nation — for it has 
been recognized as a nation by the Govern- 
ment of the United States — is an interesting 
one. The Czecho-Slavic people are to be 
found, in the main, in Hungary and Western 



plies, forced to live upon the country through 
which it marched, confronted by a journey 
of nearly 3,000 miles across Siberia, may 
well be doubted. 

But the Czecho-Slovaks were not destined 
to pursue their initial plan very long. They 
were making progress in the campaign they 
had mapped out for themselves, finding here 
general sympathy from the Russian people 
and securing many recruits; or encountering 
there the hostility of Bolshevist forces to 
which they had to give battle. But as the 




The Bolsheviki rule Russia with machine guns and every form of brutality and terrorism 



Russia. At the time of the downfall of the 
established Russian Government a very 
considerable army, composed almost entirely 
of these people, was serving under the 
Russian flag. When its officers discovered 
that the revolution was going to play into the 
hands of the Germans they promptly re- 
volted against Russian rule, and started on 
a march to the East, intending ultimately to 
reach the Pacific Coast at Vladivostok, and 
thence be transported in the ships of the 
Allies to the fighting fields of France. It was 
an amazing conception. Whether it could 
have been carried out by an army without 
any home government, with no base of sup- 



time wore on, their leaders saw more and 
more clearly that German influence was be- 
coming dominant in the Bolshevik camp and 
that if they were to fight for their own na- 
tionality they must fight the forces that were 
then dominating Russia. Their leaders were 
possessed not merely of military genius but 
of a clear political vision. It is not probable 
that at the moment this wandering army 
broke from Russian control and started 
eastward it had any preconceived idea of 
establishing a nation of its own. But as 
the break up of Russia became more and 
more apparent this idea did occur to the 
leaders of the army, and to poHtical leaders 



172 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



in the territory whence its members had been 
drawn, and in Switzerland, Holland, and in 
the United States. At our national capital 
Professor Thomas G. Masaryk proved an 
able diplomat and a wise counsellor. The 
conception of a great Czecho-Slovak state 
which should be carved out of the portions 
of Russia, and of Austria-Hungary peopled 
by these people was enforced upon the world's 
consciousness. It fitted in admirably with 
that doctrine that the organization of 
nations and their boundaries should be a 
matter of the self-determination of their 
people, and that a nation should be racially 
a coherent whole. President Wilson enun- 
ciated this theory to Congress. Professor 
Masaryk pointed out that his people afforded 
the best possible opportunity for giving it a 
practical test. Never had they been con- 
tented under the dominion of Russia or of 
Austria-Hungary. Their men had served 
in the armies of these countries under protest 
and were now serving as an independent 
force against these two governments. The 
exploits of their army in the field had aroused 
general public admiration, and greatly reen- 
forced the arguments of their diplomats in 
the world's capitals. They were recognized 



as a militant force even before they attained 
political recognition as a state. The Alliec 
governments, seeing in them the only force 
combatting German influence in Bolshevil, 
Russia, sent to their aid an expeditionatA 
force made up of Americans, Japanese, Brit- 
ish, French, and Chinese troops which was 
landed at Vladivostok early in August, 1918. 
Our own detachment consisted of two regi- 
ments under General William S. Graves 
which had been serving in the Philippines. 
It was to be the task of this expedition to 
fight its way westward along the Siberian 
Railroad, open communication with the scat- 
tered bands of Czecho-Slovaks furnishing 
them with arms and munitions, and proceed 
onward toward the heart of Russia. By the 
end of the year these forces had attained a 
position in the neighborhood of Tomsk, the 
railroad behind them was clear to the coast, 
and the country in which they had been oper- 
ating virtually pacified. 

In September of the same year the United 
States Government formally recognized the 
Czecho-Slovak National Council as a de 
facto belligerent government. Its reason 
for granting this recognition was that the 
forces of this Council were waging a war 




UNITED STATES 




This a unit of the one-time splendid Russian army which through Bolshevik fanaticism and treachery « ,is 
Germans — Russia's implacable foes now as always 

against the common enemy, the Empires of 
Germany and Austria-Hungary. Great Brit- 
ain and France soon thereafter followed suit. 
The event promises to be one of great impor- 
tance in the history of the world, for it as 
truly marks the birth of a nation as did our 
own Declaration of Independence. The area 
of the countries represented by the Council 
that was thus legitimatized approximates 
48,000 square miles, and in it reside rather 
more than 10,000,000 people. Territory and 



people are both drawn chiefl}- from Austria- 
Hungary, although at points the boundaries 
trench upon German and Austrian soil. 
Before the year had ended, a tentative con- 
stitution had been prepared and formal notice 
given to the world of the fact that the new 
state would be a republic. 

Northern Russia saw another invasion, 
not wholly unfriendly, by a joint AlHed ex- 
pedition in the last year of the war. It will 
be remembered that Russia is largely desti- 




Czecho-Sluvak soldiers drawn up along one of the principal streets of Vladivosrok, Russia 



174 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



tute of ports on her western coast that are 
not subject to ice blockades in winter. 
Petrograd and Riga are icebound fully six 
months in the year. Archangel, on the White 
Sea, although far north of either of these 
ports, has a longer open season but for certain 
periods during the winter can only maintain 
navigation by the use of ice-crushers whose 
most powerful endeavors are not infrequently 
futile. Curiously enough, far to the north 
of Archangel, and on the Arctic Ocean, is a 
port which is practically free from ice the 
year round. Presumably some warm ocean 
current sets in toward this port of Kola and 
keeps it open when the more southerly harbor 
of Archangel is frozen. While Russia was 
still an active belligerent, Kola was made into 
a base for the supply of the Russian armies, 
a railroad running south from it to Petrograd. 
This road runs either through, or immediately 
adjacent to, Finland, and Finland in its eager- 



ness to break away from Russia fell under 
German influence and in the latter months 
of the war was necessarily regarded as a 
pro-German force. Enormous quantities of 
food, clothing, and munitions of war were 
stacked up on the walls and in the ware- 
houses in Kola and held there for a long time 
by the Allies because the Russian Govern- 
ment to which they were consigned had been 
overthrown and the new government was 
not recognized as friendly. It became ap- 
parent that the Germans, who were sorely 
in need of precisely this sort of material, were 
planning a descent upon this base and the 
seizure of the stores. Finland, though nomi- 
nally neutral, would put no obstacle in the 
way of the passage of German troops through 
her territories. Accordingly an Allied force 
was landed and proceeded down what is 
known as the Murmansk Peninsula with a 
view to protecting the railroad to Petrograd. 








lagovieachenelor^ 

^^_ ^^ ^" M A N C H uVl I A Vw-^4^^^^^,<v^ J ^ y ^...'•f ■ 



TpUukden.Pt.Artliur .. 
and Peking if 




© igiS by the n^orld's ll'ork 

The Trans-Siberian Railroad from Lake Baikal to Vladivostok. This section, e.xcept for Vladivostok and Kharbin 
(Harbin), is largely controlled by the Bolsheviki and will have to be taken from them by the Allied expedition and the Czecho- 
slovaks. The direct line from Kumaiskii Raz to Vladivostok is the Chinese Eastern Railway, and is used by the expedition 
with the consent of the Chinese Government. The line along the Amur River, by way of Khabarovsk, was only recently 
completed 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



175 



At the beginning a detachment of American 
Marines constituted our contribution to this 
force, but it was presently followed by two 
regiments of infantry made up of men from 
the United States who were able to speak 
Russian or, in some instances, French, and 
who, prior to coming to our country, had 
resided in arctic climates. They made their 
way to Archangel where they were reviewed 
by Ambassador Francis, and greeted with the 
utmost enthusiasm by the populace. 



every point. Russians and inhabitants of 
Finland, who were opposed to the extension 
of German authority in that country, formed 
organizations which came to be known as 
"The White Guard" and cooperated with the 
expeditionary forces. At the end of the year 
191 8, the Murmansk Peninsula was wholly 
in their control and it seemed altogether 
probable that they would piesently extend 
their march to Petrograd when peace was 
declared. 




Czecho-Slovak soldiers and American bluejackets going on guard duty together in Siberia 



Although this expedition had been under- 
taken in a spirit of the utmost friendliness 
to Russia, and wholly with the purpose of 
preventing German acquisition of the stores, 
which had been intended for the Russian 
Government, the Bolshevists who had seized 
control of that government made of it an 
occasion for once again showing their com- 
plete subservience to Germany. They de- 
clared this relief expedition to be in fact an 
invasion of Russian territory, and demanded 
that the troops be withdrawn. As the Allies 
refused to give any heed to the demand, 
Bolshevist forces, or as they came to be 
known "The Red Guard," attacked the ex- 
peditionary troops, but were defeated at 



Naturally, however, Russia as a factor 
in the determination of the war had ceased 
to exist. If her influence had any bearing 
upon the outcome of the conflict it must be 
regarded as favorable to Germany, because 
conditions in the new states, carved out of her 
territory and recognized by Germany, were 
such as to enable the Germans to secure from 
them enormous enforced contributions of 
money and a number of men for the German 
armies running far up into hundreds of 
thousands. 

In considering the Russian situation it is 
fair to keep in mind the long years of tyranny 
to which the people of that country had been 
subjected. For centuries their resentment 



176 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Annanefe soldiers, orientals from the French protectorate in southeastern Asia. These men were among the best of the 

Allied troops 



had smouldered and when it broke out into 
successful revolt the natural result was a 
reign of violence. It may be doubted, how- 
ever, whether all the worst atrocities accre- 
dited to the Bolsheviki exceeded in inhuman- 
ity the deeds committed throughout past 
years by the governments of successive 
Czars. To talk of a "reign of terror" in 
Russia under the revolutionary rule is but 
to resort to the commonplace. All govern- 
ment in Russia for three hundred years has 
been a reign of terror. The difference to-day 
is that a different class of society is suffering. 
The utter unreasonableness, the seeming 
barbarity of political persecutions under 



lishment of the armistice. Always in Ger- 
many the socialistic element had been strong, 
and as the overthrow of the Imperial Govern- 
ment followed almost instantly upon the 
restoration of peace it was apprehended that 
the socialists would seize the government 
and establish even a more radical form of 
socialism than they had theretofore been 
preaching. Those who dreaded such an 
event placed their chief reliance upon the 
existence in Germany of a large and powerful 
middle class, such as was entirely lacking 
in Russia, and which wherever it is found is a 
check upon extreme radicalism. 

But the world was nervous. Of that there 



Lenine and Trotzky is no greater than it was could be no doubt. Supporters of the Bol- 

in earlier daAs under officials devoted to the shevist regime in Russia declared that as 

maintenance of the empire. a result of this nervousness the reports of 

It is therefore too early to pass upon the turbulence and chaos existing there were 

ultimate worth of the Russian revolution, grossly exaggerated. This is not improbable. 



But the temporary conditions bred of it 
aroused in all other civilized nations a very 
serious dread lest the Bolshevism that had 
captured Russia should spread to other lands. 
jParticularly was this the case with Germany 
in the days immediately succeeding the estab- 



and yet the evidence is irresistible that life, 
liberty, and property were deprived of all 
protection under the Bolshevist regime, that 
industry was struck down, commerce de- 
stroyed, and ruin and starvation forced upon 
the people. The United States Governmentj 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



177 



which had been first to extend a hand of 
friendship to revolutionary Russia, was forced 
into an attitude of protest, and said in a 
formal communication to the AUies: 

This Government is in receipt of information from 
reliable sources revealing that the peaceable Russian 
citizens of Moscow, Petrograd, and other cities are 
suffering from an openly avowed campaign of mass 
terrorism and are subject to wholesale executions. 
Thousands of persons have been shot without even a 
form of trial; ill-adminis^ered prisons are filled beyond 
capacity, and every night scores of Russian citizens 
are recklessly put to death; and irresponsible bands are 
venting their brutal passions in the daily massacres of 
untold innocents. 

In view of the earnest desire of the people of the 
United States to befriend the Russian people and lend 
them all that is possible of assistance in their struggle 
to reconstruct their nation upon principles of democracy 
and self-government, and acting therefore solely in the 
interest of the Russian people themselves, this Govern- 
ment feels that it cannot be silent or refrain from ex- 



pressing its horror at this state of terrorism. Further- 
more, it believes that in order to check the further in- 
crease of the indiscriminate slaughter of Russian citizens 
all civilized nations should register their abhorrence 
of such barbarism. 

As a result of this situation it was felt at 
the time of the Peace Conference that it 
might be necessary to keep American forces 
in Europe for some time, in order to combat 
the powers of anarchy which seemed to have 
grown to menacing proportions in Russia. 
What the outcome of the situation may be 
none may tell, but there is reason to hope 
that just as the Terror brought the violent 
period of the French revolution to a close 
and left the ground prepared for the erection 
of a stable government, so the red fury of 
Bolshevism is preparing the way for a popular 
government which shall give a people long 
oppressed by tyrants a government of their 
own for their own good. 




German, Austrian, and Bolsheviki prisoners being brought into Vladivostok by the Czecho-Slovaks 



178 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Jugo-Slav horsemen going into battle during the irresistible Allied offensive of September, 1918, in the Balkans 




Recruits for the Russian Women's Battalion of Death being reviewed by their commander Maria Botchkareva and Mrs. Pankhurst 

of Great Britain 






CHAPTER IX 

WHERE TEUTONIC DISSOLUTION BEGAN THE WAR IN THE SOUTHEAST^ 

BULGARIA SURRENDERS THE DOWNFALL OF TURKEY BRITISH VICTORIES 

IN PALESTINE ITALY REGAINS HER WAR STRENGTH FIGHTING ON THE 

PIAVE THE SMASH-UP OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY ASPIRATIONS OF SUBJECT 

PEOPLES REMAKING THE MAP OF EUROPE SOME OF THE MORE PERPLEXING 

PROBLEMS 



TO THE ordi- 
nary observer 
it appeared 
that the great 
war was won in 
France. There from 
its earhest days the 
fighting was most con- 
stant, and it was there 
that the great French 
general was in com- 
mand to whom, at the 
last, the German ap- 
peal for an armistice 
was referred. It was 
France that the Teu- 
tonic hordes sought 
to overwhelm, and 
France, with aid of 
course from her Allies, 
that beat them back. 
It was in the main 
the ruined cities of 
France, the desolated 
homes, and the cruelly 
torn and lacerated families of France that 
most stirred the compassion of the world, and 
roused that wrath against the Hun that 
nought but complete victory could appease. 
And so it was fitting that the last act in the 
tragic drama should be staged as it was in 
France. 

Nevertheless, an important part of the 
work of beating the Hun was done at a great 
distance from France, and the story of the 
sudden German collapse, which we have yet 
to tell, will not be comprehensible unless pre- 
ceded by some account of the military ac- 
tions in Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, and 
along the Italian-Austrian border that made 
the surrender of Germany on French battle- 
fields inevitable. 




The successes won by the AlHes in the eas- 
tern theatre of war at the beginning of its 
fifth year came as a surprise to the world, 
which had heard little from that section ex- 
cept continued reports of the victories of the 
Germans, or of their Balkan allies. Indeed 
there had grown up a certain belief that even 
if Germany was to be beaten in France she 
would prove invincible in the Near East, and 
would build up for herself an empire there 
that would atone for the failure to win any 
territory on the western front. It was rec- 
ognized that the dream of a Pan-Germanic 
empire that should extend from the Baltic 
or the North Sea to the Persian Gulf was to a 
great extent the animating purpose of the 
German declaration of war, and the success 
of German diplomacy and the German arms 
in the Near East seemed for a long time to 
justify the fear that this ambition would be 
attained. When the United States entered 
the war the situation looked hopeless for the 
Allies in the whole theatre of war east of the 
French border. Italy was slowly recovering 
from a monumental defeat. Rumania and 
Serbia had been overwhelmed and forced to 
make treaties of peace that amounted to ab- 
ject surrender. So far as the world could see 
Turkey was in a condition that promised con- 
tinued service to the German cause. For while 
her armies in Mesopotamia and Palestine had 
sustained a succession of defeats at the hands 
of the British under General Stanley Maude 
and Sir Edwin Allenby, the collapse of Russia 
had relieved them from all pressure on the 
Caucasus side, and the steady massacre of the 
unhappy Armenians was progressing under 
the approving eye of Christian Germany. 
The world, outside of the war councils of the 
Allies, could see nothing in the Balkans to 
encourage hope. 

Yet the element of weakness was operating 



179 



i8o 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




© Wfsttrn Newspaper Union 

A narrow escape for some British fighters in Mesopotamia. With characteristic British scorn of danger one of these men 
commented, "A close one that held us up a bit" 



very effectively in the enemy's ranks although 
scarcely suspected. South of the Dardanelles 
the British progress was very like a triumph- 
ant parade, and the repeated Turkish defeats 
aroused political revolt in the capital in the 
course of which Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey, 
adventurers who had seized control of the 
government and had effected the diplomatic 
agreement with Germany, were overthrown. 
Revolts broke out among the Arabs in various 
provinces of Asia Minor, and the British 
forces operating in that section soon found 
that their activities were largely reduced to 
accepting the surrender of enemy armies who 
had no longer any desire to fight. The 
enemy's resistance collapsed completely. An 
official correspondent with the British troops 
in Palestine describes one scene of rout 
thus: 

More than 260 guns have been located in our lines, 
and possibly more will be found. Artillery ammunition 
in vast quantities has been found everywhere. Some 
of the depots are acres in extent. As the Turks only 
manufacture small arms ammunition, if they try to 
raise new armies to take the place of these destroyed, 
they must call on Germany for every gun, transport, 
and instrument of war required. 



To-day saw one of the most remarkable sights which 
a soldier ever gazed upon. From Balata, where the 
road from Nabulus falls through craggy hills and narrow 
passes to Wadi Farah, there is a stretch more than six 
miles long covered with debris of the retreating army. 
In no section of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow could 
there have been a m'ore terrible picture of hopeless, 
irretrievable defeat. 

In this area alone were eighty-seven guns of various 
calibres, fully 1,000 horse and oxen drawn vehicles, 
nearly 100 motor lorries, cars filled with kitchens, 
watercarts, and a mass of other impedimenta. The 
road was black with the carcases of thousands of 
animals and bodies of dead Turks and Germans. 

This was the work of the Irish, Welsh, and Indian 
infantry. The artillery pressure behind the indomi- 
table British and Australian airmen m front of the 
infantry had forced the enemy over the hills into the 
road, and just as the guns began to shell the retiring 
transport airmen swooped down to 200 feet and bombed 
the head of the column. Once that was accomplished, 
time only was required to finish the job, and this was 
done with surprising thoroughness. One flight after 
another took up the work, until the whole column was 
one vast, broken mass. 

The enemy troops, seeing escape with the vehicles 
was impossible, fled to the hills. Some who had 
endeavored to find an outlet up the Beisan road fell 
into the hands of cavalry waiting for them. Others, 
accepting the inevitable, sought refuge in our lines. 



UNITED STATES IN THE dREAT WAR 




British troops outside the Jaffa Gate guarding the end of the hne of communication to Jerusalem, forty-one miles i 



l82 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




A camel transport near the Suez Canal during the British campaign In Egypt 



However dire the state of the Turkish arm- 
ies in the field, and however great the pohtical 




An arrested Arab sheik volubly protesting his innocence to 
his impassive captor, a British Tommy, who doesn't under- 
stand a word of his language 



unrest in Constantinople, the government 
was not precipitate in giving up the struggle. 
This was mainly because whoever was m 
nominal power the real power in Turkey was 
at that moment Germany. The German 
ambassador was virtually in control, and his 
word was backed by the German battleships, 
Goehen and Breslau, which had been nomi- 
nally sold to Turkey but were still commanded 
by German officers. The Turkish armies, 
too, were largely under German control. 
Accordingly in the face of dire disasters in the 
field the Turkish Government made no over- 
tures for surrender. 

But the successes of Allied troops north of 
Turkish territory and the reverses that befell 
the Bulgarians in the fall of 191 8, ultimately 
put the Turk out of action. In September 
of that year General Franchet d'Esperey, in 
command of an allied force approximating 
400,000 men, British, French, Serbian, Mon- 
tenegrin, Italian, Russian, Jugo-Slav, and 
Greek, a truly cosmopolitan force, began an 
attack on the enemy's forces in Serbia. It 
was a movement that had been expected by 
the Allied world for months, perhaps for 
years. It had long been delayed by distrust 
of Greece under her pro-German monarch. 
King Constantine. But with the intriguer 
driven from the throne, and the Greek Gov- 
ernment practically in the control of the Allies 
the danger of a fire in the rear was done away 



UNITED 




The First Christian Nation. Six Turkish vilayets in the northeastern part of Asia Minor constitute Armenia. The 
Armenian nation is one of the oldest in the world; the Armenian church is the oldest state Christian church in the world. 
There are about 2,000,000 Armenians in these provinces — a little island of Christians surrounded by people of hostile race and 
hostile religion. For five centuries their lives have been one continuous martyrdom, their agony reaching its most terrible stage 
in the spring and summer months of 1915 



leaving great bodies of prisoners in the hands 
of the pursuers. As usual a cry went up from 
the failing nation for German aid, but this time 
there came no response. Germany was hav- 
ing troubles of her own. King Ferdinand, 
of Bulgaria, "the Fox of the Balkans," who 
had forced his people into the war on the side 
which most of them hated, saw his kingdom 
in revolt and seizing all the treasure he could 
lay his hands on abdicated and fled. With 
his abdication came the unconditional sur- 



with. Moreover, the enemy troops in front 
of d'Esperey were weakened just at this time, 
for Austria and Bulgaria had responded to 
German demands for more troops on the 
west front, and had sent some divisions thither. 
Accordingly, September i6th, the Allied offen- 
sive was opened on a ten-mile front in the 
region between the River Vardar and Lake 
Doiran. It was expected to be the precursor 
of an extended operation but it is not prob- 
able that the commanding general himself 
knew how suddenly it would 
develop into a triumphant pur- 
suit of a retreating and de- 
moralized army. For within 
two days French and Serbian 
troops had advanced five miles 
and had taken such strategic 
points as made the interrup- 
tion of the enemy's retreat 
most improbable. 

While heavy blows were 
being dealt on this sector 
Italian troops in Albania were 
pounding that part of the 
enemy's line that extended 
into Albania while French and 
Serbians were attacking his 
centre. Within ten days from 
the commencement of the 
offensive the Bulgarians were 
in retreat all along the line, 

burning their stores and A pressure pump in the Desert of -Arabia tor obtammg water by friction 




.-***' 



^y-^rji 




l84 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 








i<<r'i? 



Indian lancers, who substantially contributed to the British and Allied triumph in the Holy Land, entering Haifa 



render of Bulgaria — the first of the Kaiser's 
accompHces to leave him in the lurch. It 
lacked but nine days of three years since Bul- 
garia had cast in her lot with the Teutonic 
alliance, and was a tragic ending to a story 
of royal intrigue and indifference to the 
wishes of a people. 




Wounded 



nets being carried on camels in the Desert of Arabia 



The surrender of Bulgaria was recognized 
everywhere as assuring the early retirement 
of Turkey from the war. For the Moslem 
nation was now cut off from the source of all 
its strength, and isolated from the power 
which had coaxed it into war and supported 
it in the moments of greatest trial. Bulgaria 
and Serbia being lost to the 
Germans, there could be no 
longer an uninterrupted com- 
merce between Berlin and 
Constantinople. The Ham- 
burg-Constantinople express 
that had been inaugurated 
with such pomp and had been 
expected to be one of the per- 
manent features of German 
imperial expansion was rudely 
switched off. No more Ger- 
man officers, German muni- 
tions, nor German money 
could be sent to the city on the 
GoldenHorn. TheAllied 
troops busied themselves for 
a while clearing out of Serbia, 
Albania, and Montenegro the 
remaining enemy forces, serene 
in the certainty that Turkey 
would be forced to quit with- 



_l 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



i8S 



out any further fighting on their part. If 
more force should be needed the British 
armies pressmg north through Palestine 
might be trusted to apply it. Meanwhile, 
they cleared all Germans, Austro-Hungarians, 
and Turks out of Bulgaria. They were given 
a month to leave, and their going was greatly 
expedited by the process of bundling them 
all, officers and soldiers together, into freight 
cars and shipping them to Vienna while the 
roads were crowded with motor trains carry- 
ing such material of war as the defeated 
foe was permitted to take. As fast as the 
enemy retired from Serbia the allied forces 
pressed on his heels and by November, 
Belgrade, on the boundary line of Austria- 
Hungary, was reached. Serbia, the hapless 
country that had been made the pretext for 
this most barbarous war, was purged of the 
barbarians that had forced it 
upon her. The final reply to 
the Austrian ultimatum, dic- 
tated from Berlin, which pre- 
cipitated the war, had at last 
been made. 

But before this time Turkey 
had laid down her arms. 
October 31st the armistice 
was signed which in the hope 
of all civilized people means 
the final expulsion of the un- 
speakable Turk from any part 
or place in European civiliza- 
tion. The surrender was un- 
qualified and included Turkish 
domains in Asia Minor as well 
as all to the north of the 
Bosphorous. It will be for 
the Peace Conference at 
Versailles to determine the 
future of the Turkish domain, 
but it is certain that the 
Dardanelles will never 
again be the property either 
of Turkey or of any other 
power with authority to close 
them to the commerce of any 
nation. It is assured that 
Constantinople will not con- 
tinue under Turkish rule, and 
that Jerusalem, and indeed all 
of the Holy Land, will be re- 
deemed from Moslem domi- 
nation. What is left of the 
Armenian people after whole- 
sale massacres and persecution 



baffling description — and for which Christian 
Germany was more responsible than the 
Moslem Turks — will be assured freedom from 
the damnable tyranny under which they have 
suffered, and an opportunity in the coming 
ages to build up that prosperous and civilized 
Christian nation which they are eminently 
able to develop and maintain. Enormous as 
has been the cost of the Great War, and 
terrible as have been the sufferings that it 
has entailed, it is possible that in the age-long 
balance sheet it may be shown that all has 
been more than paid for by this final expulsion 
of the Turk from power at the eastern end 
of the Mediterranean. 

So Turkey and Bulgaria dropped out of the 
war. It was then the moment for the world 
to foresee the immediate fall of the two Teu- 
ton empires. The southeastern empire that 




Kaiser Wilhelm visiting in Sophia, Bulgaria, his fellow conspirator. King Ferdi- 
nand of Bulgaria. The Kaiser is wearing a Bulgarian uniform while the King is 
wearing that of a Prussian Field Marshal 



i86 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



187 




time was needed to restore it. Time was 
needed, too, for the Allies to make amends for 
their earher neglect, and furnish those sup- 
plies the lack of w:hich had been one of the 
causes contributing to Italian disaster. 

When the passes were opening it was Aus- 
tria that struck first, and the blow recoiled 
on her to her utter destruction and final undo- 
ing. On the 15th of June, in response it is 
said to an order from the Kaiser to Emperor 
Charles that he "put the Itahan armies hors 
du combat" the Austrians struck both in the 
mountain regions of the Veneto and on the 
Piave. On the former front the Italians 
were helped by both British and French 
forces, and a small number of British were 
also on the line of the river. At both points 
the Austrians were first held, then beaten 
back disastrously. The Italians were but 
briefly on the defensive, then rallying their 
forces rushed into an offense that never was 
checked until the Austrians themselves suf- 
fered the fate the Kaiser wished them to in- 
flict upon their foes. In a month's time the 
Austrian casualties were estimated at be- 
tween 270,000 and 300,000 of whom about 



Prince Alexander of Serbia, who has been 
Prince Regent since the retirement of his father, 
King Peter 

Germany had sought to establish was gone. 
The supplies of wheat, of oil, of foodstuff^s 
that she had thought to draw from Mesopo- 
tamia, from Russia via Odessa, from Rou- 
mania and Bulgaria were suddenly shut off, 
and most menacing of all the great ally Aus- 
tria-Hungary sore beset on every side, racked 
by internal pohtical dissension, beggared, 
starving, and freezing, was on the pomt of 
collapse and did in fact give up the struggle 
on November 3d, three days after Turkey 
had laid down her arms. But the downfall 
of Austria was compelled by events that oc- 
curred outside the Balkans, and on the Italian 
frontier. They constitute a most glorious 
chapter of Italian history, and indeed one of 
the most stirring records of all wars. 

In an earlier chapter we left the Italian 
armies, at the beginning of 191 8, standing on 
guard on the line of the Piave and at the 
mouths of the mountain passes leading down 
into the Venetian plain. Here they stood 
thoughout that winter, and until the snows 
were well out of the passes in summer. Their 
morale had sustained a severe shock, and 




A typical headquarters of a 
Balkan 



commander on the 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




In the Balkan Mountains there were no motor ambulances for the wounded. This is the kind of comfortless transport they 

had to endure 




A group of Serbian soldiers, known as rifle bombers, ready to attack the cruel German-Austrian invaders of their country 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



191 



60,000 were killed, and 20,000 taken prisoners. 
Along the Piave the fighting was truly am- 
phibious. Torrential rains that began to 
fall during the first days of the Austrian at- 
tack put that low-lying country wholly under 
water. All the bridges across the river save 
two were swept away, and these were speedily 
demohshed by shells dropped from airplanes 
by British aviators. The upper part of the 
river flows through a narrow gorge with steep 
walls, and here it was a rushing mountain 
torrent which nothing could pass, and after 
the destruction of the bridges the German 
General Boroevic was only able to feed those 
of his troops that had crossed before the 
bridges went down by resorting to the use 
of airplanes. 

Lower down the river spreads out over 
broad and shallow flats, and here the scene 
was a frightful one. The outlet into the Gulf 
of Venice was obstructed by 
great masses of floating tim- 
ber, the debris of structures 
destroyed by Italian artillery 
higher up, splintered boats, 
and the corpses of animals and 
men that came floating down 
in increasing numbers to bear 
ghastly testimony to the sav- 
agery of the battle on the 
upper waters. In this fighting 
a small American pioneer 
corps took an active part. 
They were in the assault at 
Montello where the Allied 
artillery was turned on dense 
masses of Austrian troops, 
caught on the danger side of 
the Piave with all bridges 
down behind them. Artillery 
and the ceaseless fire from 
aircraft which hovered above 
making deadly play with 
machine guns and bombs, 
spread death and panic in their 
ranks. American aviators, 
though flying foreign ma- 
chines, were in the flocks of 
aerial fighters and did mag- 
nificent service. From the 
uplands of Montello down both 
banks of the river to San Dona 
the country was one great 
cemetery in which, however, 
the dead lay unburied. Below 
the latter point the river 



widens out, and here the fighting continued 
long after the Austrians had been put out of 
action farther up the stream. 

It was diflRcult country for modern military 
methods. The soil was too moist for trenches 
to be dug, and the fighting men of either side, 
hungry for some form of protection, turned 
every farmhouse, wall, or mill into a small 
fort. The banks of the innumerable canals 
were the only pieces of solid ground to be 
found and these were thickly lined with ma- 
chine guns, while the muzzles of the same 
deadly weapons peeped from every tree strong 
enough to support them. Floundering in 
the bogs, swimming canals and breasting tor- 
rents, the fighting foes gave many instances 
of picturesque tactics. The Italian arditi 
equipped themselves with long leaping poles 
such as boys use at play and descended upon 
the enemy behind his ditches as from the air. 




Enver Pasha, the Turkish Minister of War and tool of the Kaiser's; who accumu- 
lated a vast fortune made out of the sufferings of the people during the war 



192 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



193 




King Victor Immanuel of Italy and his staff inspecting the American regiment which fought on the Itahan front 




American and ItaHan aviators jointly occupying one of Italy's beautiful aviation fields 



194 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



195 




Austrian prisoners in an Italian detention camp behind the Itahan front 




American soldiers in Italy being taught by Italians how to cross a river in Italian boats 




Closely in the wake of the Allied armies as they advanced into Russia came the Red Cross with food "and clothingr'^ 
condensed mdk (or the babies, medical supplies, and all the things desperately needed by the Russian people 



UNITED STATES 




A group of American officers who saw service on the Italian front. They are left to right: Lieutenant Colonel Boyers, Captain 
Scandland, General Treat, Major McCraw, Major McKinney, and Captain Hiller 



One Austrian command that fought well and 
was practically wiped out was the famous 
Viennese "Company of Death," composed 
of volunteers, uniformed in black sweaters 
embroidered on the breast with a white skull. 
There were but few of these rather melodram- 
atic costumes known in this war. But among 
them was the uniform of the command fa- 
vored by the German Crown Prince, with 
skull and cross-bones embroidered on the 
front of its headgear. It is not recorded that 
this terrifying insignia added particularly 
to their efficiency in battle, and the Crown 
Prince, by running away immediately upon 
the German smashup, saved exposing himself 
to the death which the decoration seemed to 
typify. 

The most savage fighting in this renewal 
of activity along .the ItaHan front was that 
on the Piave. But to the west on the Italian 
line, where it ran along the mountains that 
separate Italy from Austria and guarded the 
passes through which the enemy had once 
swarmed down upon the Venetian plain, the 
Italians had pressed forward for heavy gains, 
and had secured several strategic points 
against the moment when they should launch 
their great objective. This came October 



9th. In France the Allied advance was at 
its fullest tide of success. The Americans 
had just broken the Kriemhilde Hne, the Ger- 
mans had evacuated Lille, Ostende, Ghent, 
and Bruges; at every point the signs of Ger- 
man disintegration were apparent, and in 
the Argonne and along the lines of the Meuse 
the Americans were relentlessly pressing on 
toward Sedan and Mezieres with the purpose 
of cutting off the retreat of the German armies 
that were facing defeat. 

The moment was propitious for final ItaHan 
victory. From Foch, the all-seeing General- 
issimo on the western front, came speeding 
the order to attack. The men under Diaz 
were speedily under way. They smote the 
Austrian invaders in the mountain passes 
about Asiago and on the marshy reaches of 
the Piave. Just a year earlier, at Caporetto, 
the Austrians, with the aid. of treachery, had 
overwhelmed the sons of Italy, but now ven- 
geance was taken to the fullest. 

Fifty-one Italian divisions, three British, 
two French, and one Czecho-Slovak division 
and one American regiment participated in 
the movement, begun October 24th, which fi- 
nally put Austria-Hunga'ry out of the war, and 
to present appearances put that double- 



198 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




American soldiers constructing defenses along the Piave in Italy 



headed monarchy out of the hst of nations. 
Within twenty-four hours after the battle 
begun the Itahans had captured 3,000 prison- 
ers, and had taken the enemy's strongest 
positions in that quarter. On the Piave the 
overthrow of the Austrians was not less com- 
plete. In what seemed to be but a few hours 
of fighting the arrogant enemy which but a 
few days before had felt certain of capturing 
Venice, and was talking of sweeping down 
from the mountains on to the plains of north- 
ern Italy and opening a back-door for the in- 
vasion of France from the southeast, was in 
full retreat. Up again through the mountain 
passes which they had won with such infinite 
pains two years earlier, only to be expelled 
again, the Italians made their way. The 
mountain peaks were passed again. The 
head waters of the Isonzo again witnessed the 
triumphant flaunting of the Italian colors. 
Back through that rocky and desperate coun- 
try though which once before they had dug 
and blasted and fought their way the Alpini, 
the Bersaglieri, and the other picturesque units 
of Italy's fighting force ascended irresistibly, 
for it was all uphill fighting. At last they 
stood once more in the outskirts of Goritzia. 
In a month Austria had lost all the territory 
upon which the armies came into contact, 



400,000 prisoners, 7,000 cannon, and a body of 
dead and wounded which could hardly be 
computed. There was nothing left for the 
Austrians except surrender and on the ist of 
November they asked and received terms of 
an armistice. While her acceptance was still 
under consideration the Italians pushed the 
fighting with such good effect that before 
the final surrender of Austria three days later 
their armies were in both Trent and Trieste 
and Italia Irredenta was redeemed. 

During the period of the final smash-up 
of the Austrian armies ill fortune attended 
the ships of that nation as well. Italian 
bluejackets showed a dash and gallantry 
worthy of the nation that gave to the world 
Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, and a host of 
less famous but still adventurous seamen. 
November 1st, the very day of the surrender, 
the great Austrian superdreadnaught, Viri- 
bus Unitis, was torpedoed and sunk by an 
Italian naval tank steamer — a most ignoble 
end for a deep-sea fighter. 

While the final acceptance of the armistice 
was still in doubt the Italians were unrelent- 
ing in their ferocious attacks, and the Aus- 
trians seemed quite incapable of recovering 
their morale or the ability to make any sort 
of a stand against their pursuers. The re- 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



199 



Ff- 






S^^^^llft'^ 


/ 




-- **»™*««te ^H^ 


^CA 


^ 


^2>1 




^^f 


1 




H if ( 


^^ 


1 




^m'' '^t^ 


» V. 






H^^ 


^^^HpP^^-^'^' ^ JB^P 



General Eben Swift of the American forces in Italy detects 
James H. Hare, photographer for Leslie's Weekly, in the act 
of taking his picture 

treat of the defeated armies through the 
steep and narrow defiles of the Alps could for 
its scenes of horror be compared only with 
the famous retreat of Napoleon's grand army 
from Moscow. A correspondent who wit- 
nessed it writes: 

Great masses of men wait for long hours to move 
a few feet or a few hundred yards, to halt anew on a 
road littered with the carcases of horses, pieces of 
shells, pistols, rifles, broken-down auto trucks, and 
machine guns. Many Austrians are dying from sheer 
fatigue and starvation and not wounds. The Italians 
are doing all they can to hurry up food suppHes. This 
is difficult, and in the meantime dead horses are eaten, 
the flesh being cooked by the roadside by fires kindled 
by the soldiers. 

Large bodies of Austrians are helpless. The cor- 
respondents passed between Overto and Trent, a 
distance of sixteen miles, an unending column of men 
marching none knew whither. They asked orders 



from an officer who was with the correspondents. 
When asked if they knew about the armistice, they 
said: "We want food. Food is the only thing we are 
interested in. We are indiff"erent to war and peace 
and death — everything but food." 

It is estimated that nine Austrian divisions were 
taken with their staff's. Thirty-nine divisions were 
partially disorganized and fifteen, although in bad 
condition, are retreating from the advancing Italians. 
These troops, while equipped for their retreat, are 
without orders, and go travelling here and there like 
droves of sheep. 

While the Austrian armies were being thus 
cut to pieces on the battlefield the Austro- 
Hungarian empire itself was being broken 
to bits at home. Revolution menaced in the 
stieets of Prague, of Buda-Pesth, and of 
Vienna itself. Late in October, while his 
aimies in the field were still recoiling before 
the irresistible onslaught of the Italians in 
mountain passes and on the turbulent reaches 




American reserves in Italy going to the assistanc 

pressed comrades in response to signal rockets 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




American soldiers on the Piave witii tlicir rapid-fire guns loaded and ready tor the enemy 




Signer Fogazzaro's home in the foothills near the Italian mountains which was ruined together with many other beautiful 

homes as well as many humble ones 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Marshal Foch, Commander-in-Clu 



• of the Armies of the Allies, as he looked after he had defeated the greatest military power 
in the world and saved civilization 



202 UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




The work of the Austrians at Roveretto, near Trent in Italia Irredentia which was taken by the Itahans just before hos- 

tiHties ceased 





C>> J'--- "Vi ^'"^ 



c^. ,■■ -*. 



*::T>v 



American soldiers operating one of the famous Lewis guns on the Piave in Italy 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



203 









:mv::' ,,?>« '^'^ 








■"'■ill - -■ . ■■ 





A powerful Italian submarine chaser operating on the beautiful Gulf of Venice 



of the Piave, Emperor Charles appointed a 
"Hquidation ministry" — to business men the 
term is most suggestive of bankruptcy. 
The duty of this body was to arrange terms 
of surrender and to take over the reins of 
government until it should appear what form 
of state the people would erect to take the 
place of the one that had brought upon them 
this unbearable burden of calamity and woe. 
Word was swiftly sent to the trenches, and 
toward evening of October 29th the Italian 
lookouts near Seravalle, in the Adige Valley, 
saw an Austrian officer bearing a white flag 
advancing across No Man's Land. Several of- 
ficers who went out to meet him found that 
he was a captain who claimed to be author- 
ized to discuss terms of an armistice. At 
that moment there was nothing about which 
Italy was less concerned than an armistice. 
Her troops were everywhere driving the Aus- 
trians back, capturing their positions, taking 
guns by the hundreds and prisoners by the 
thousands, and inflicting on the ancient enemy 
losses from which he could not hope to re- 
cover in decades. As the messenger of 
peace was found but imperfectly provided 
with papers to show his authority, he was 
sent back with instructions to have an officer 
of higher rank and more thoroughly accred- 
ited come in his stead. Meanwhile, the word 
went to every Italian battle line to press the 
assault with renewed vigor. The next day 



came a more formal peace embassy, headed 
by General Von Weber, and composed of 
army and navy officers, diplomatic and 




The type of gas masks worn by the soldiers of Italy 



204 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 205 




This was the first Itah'an cruiser to read 



h Trieste after its occupation by the Italians. J. H. Hare, LrsUr's photographer, was 
board 



i n ' % ^ 



*P^'~<"^" fmrnW-"^ »•«'-««— f' ' •-»-»■"# 




King Victor Immanuel of Italy being ofiicially welcomed in Trieste on November lo, 1918 



2o6 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Capodistria, a beautiful spot in the reclaimed territory of Italia Irredentia 



Other civilofficials, and afuU staff of secretaries 
and stenographers. With suitable ceremony 
the party was taken in automobiles to a 
chateau near General Diaz's headquarters. 
Here, after due deliberation and telegraphic 
communication with the Allied War Council 
then in session at Versailles, the terms of an 
armistice were agreed upon and signed. 

This armistice marked the end of the Aus- 
tro-Hungarian empire as the world has known 
it. It marked the final downfall of the House 
of Hapsburg, which all the world had long 
predicted could not stand the test of another 
European war. It restored to Italy all the 
territory which under the name of Italia 
/rr^^f'M^ifl she had mourned as France mourned 
for Alsace-Lorraine. It demobilized the Aus- 
trian armies and surrendered the Austrian 
navy but this was of the least importance for 
there was left no longer an Austrian Imperial 
Government to direct the operations of either. 
Most important of all to the coming develop- 
ment and history of the world is the fact that 
this armistice set free several great peoples 
that had long been aspiring to independence 
and national self-determination. Czecho- 
Slavs, Poles, German-Austrians, Rumanians, 
Jugo-Slavs, and Hungarians had all been tied 
together in the bonds of the dual Empire, and 



practically all had found those bonds burden- 
some. Now all were put at liberty to order 
their future national lives as they might see 
fit — or as the Peace Conference of the tri- 
umphant Allies might direct, which may pos- 
sibly prove a very different matter. Of all 
these nationalities only one, the Czecho- 
Slavs, had taken such a part in the war as to 
draw from the established nations any official 
recognition of its national existence. Yet 
each of the others possesses enough of racial 
coherence persisting throughout past ages to 
justify it in insisting upon its right to form 
its own government and state. The Jugo- 
Slavs form perhaps the most numerous peo- 
ple, and the one whose claims are likely to 
arouse the greatest menace to the future peace 
of Europe. For their territorial aims clash 
inevitably with those of Italy, which the 
latter set up prior to her entrance upon the 
war, and acquiescence in which is believed 
to be part of the price the Allies promised to 
pay for her support. The Jugo-Slavs racially 
dominate Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, and 
the southern provinces of Hungary. Nearly 
12,000,000 people are numbered in this race, 
all inhabiting regions so contiguous that they 
can well be erected into an independent state 
with borders that comply with natural physi- 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Sonic Italian torpedo-boat destroyers lying in their docks. In this vital department 

by none 



war the Italians are excelled 



cal boundaries. But the aspirations of the 
Jugo-SIavs include the incorporation into 
their territory of the city of Trieste, and the 
long line of small islands along the eastern 
shore of the Adriatic known as Istria. 

Trieste, as part of Italia Irredentia, has 
been marked by Italy for her own, and has 
doubtless been conceded to her by some 
agreement among the Allies that had not been 
made public at the close of the war. The 
Adriatic Islands, or at least a greater part of 
them, are claimed by Italy as necessary to her 
national protection. For they abound in 
harbors and in spots fitted for fortified naval 
bases while the Italian shore is low lying and 
with few of these necessary adjuncts to na- 
tional development. It is the insistence of 
Italy that with the east shore of the Adriatic 
in the hands of a foreign power, her own 
shores are at the mercy of that power. A 
certain portion of the seacoast she is willing 
to leave to the proposed Jugo-Slav state that 
it may not be wholly cut off from the sea, but 
the greater part of the islands, even though 
their population is but to a slight degree 
Italian she proposes to hold for her own. 

What may be the determination of the 
Versailles Peace Conference on this question 



cannot at this moment be determined. It 
is apparently the most difficult question af- 
fecting any of the new nationalities that is 
likely to arise. But there are other mooted 
points, arising from the Austrian debacle, that 
may give trouble. Among these is the ques- 
tion of the future of the German sections of 
Austria. These provinces are almost as Ger- 
man as Germany itself and it has been due 
to the influence they exerted in the dual Mon- 
archy, an influence very disproportionate to 
their population, that Germany was so long 
able to dominate that nation. Immediately 
upon the dissolution of the empire of the 
Hapsburgs it was suggested that these prov- 
inces should be incorporated with the new 
Germany. That would indeed be the logical 
disposition to make of them in a remaking 
of the map of Europe in a fashion designed 
to keep peoples of the same race under the 
same government. But the circumstances 
of the inception of this war no less than 
the manner of its prosecution and certain 
things attendant upon its conclusion made 
the world very suspicious of Germany. 
Amazing as it may seem after so bitter and 
costly an experience and so conclusive a de- 
feat there were not lacking signs in the Ger- 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



man attitude of a willingness to begin at once 
organizing for another attack upon civiliza- 
tion. All the work of the Peace Conference 
will be directed toward the end of making 
this impossible. But to enable Germany to 
annex from the ruins of Austria provinces 
that in wealth, population, material resources 
and military potentialities would more than 
make up for the loss of Alsace-Lorraine would 
be to strengthen rather than weaken the 
nation which is regarded with such grave 
suspicion. For this reason the German- 
speaking people of the late Austrian empire 
entered upon that conference with grave 
doubt as to what was to be their future in the 
family of nations. 

It was accepted as a matter of certainty 
that in some fashion a new Polish nation 
would emerge from the ruins of present-day 




Kaiser Karl of Austria-Hungary with liis Chief-of-StafF. This picture of the 
last ruler of the ancient, cunning, cruel, and once mighty House of Hapsburg was 
taken shortly before his downfall 



Europe. But how it should be created was 
a problem to puzzle the wisest. The Poles 
were a homogeneous, coherent race who at 
various periods in the world's history had pos- 
sessed their own government and independent 
nationality. They constituted when the war 
began a considerable part of the population of 
Russia, Austria, and Germany, and any Polish 
state to be created would necessarily be taken 
from all three of these nations. But in creat- 
ing a new Poland the proposed new Czecho- 
slovak state, the only new nationality to 
which all the Allies were definitely committed, 
would have to be drawn upon heavily, and the 
lines of demarkation between the two peoples 
would be difficult to draw. 

The break up of Austria-Hungary more 
than any immediate outcome of the war pre- 
cipitated upon Europe the decision of all 
these delicate and perplexing 
reorganizations of races, state 
boundaries and governments. 
For Austria-Hungary had been 
but a loosely bound bundle 
of rival peoples nearly all of 
which had fervently believed 
that they would be better off 
under some other rule. The 
long life, and the astute policy 
of Emperor Francis Joseph 
had been the tie that bound 
the whole together so long, 
and his death, in the fourth 
year of the great war, was 
looked upon everywhere as 
the certain precursor of 
national decomposition. His 
successor, the Emperor Karl, 
succeeded to a totteringthrone 
and a hopeless war. Like the 
other absolute sovereigns of 
Europe he went down in de- 
feat, and his abdication fol- 
lowed fast upon the armistice. 
Even before that the people 
in the principal cities were in 
open revolt against the further 
domination of the house of 
Hapsburg. Students and 
workmen in front of the Parlia- 
ment building in Vienna de- 
nounced the Hapsburgs, and 
officers in uniform went about 
urging their fellows to remove 
their cockades and other 
badges of authority. 



CHAPTER X 



THE ST. MIHIEL SALIENT THE FIRST INDEPENDENT AMERICAN OPERATION 

ON A LARGE SCALE CHARACTER OF THE FIGHTING THE GREAT PINCERS 

IN THE FOREST OF THE ARGONNE THE LOST BATTALION PRESSING ON THE 

BORDER LINE OF GERMANY DISTRESS OF THE ENEMY — THE ARMISTICE 

FLIGHT OF THE KAISER REVOLUTION IN GERMANY 





" '- Z^f^^JJ 


^^K 



Wi 



'HILE the 
war was 
thus being 
lost irrevo- 
cably to the Teutonic 
alhance in the south- 
eastern fields fighting 
was proceeding with 
its accustomed des- 
peration in the theatre 
of France and Flan- 
ders. But it was to 
some degree a new 
sort of fighting. The 
old deadlock of the 
trenches was past and 
gone. Anewandmore 
mobile style of action 
had taken its place. 
To a great extent this 
was due to the per- 
fection of the system 
of artillery prepara- 
tion and the barrage which first cut down 
the barbed wire, then levelled the parapet 
of the trench, and finally made the remain- 
ing ditch untenable for those who would de- 
fend it. Even more instrumental in effecting 
this change in the character of the fighting 
were the so-called tanks which like land bat- 
tleships could carry an advancing force un- 
hurt up to the very fine of a trench and, in 
cases, perch astride of it and rake its length 
in both directions with machine-gun fire. It 
took six or eight months of the war to bring 
trench warfare to perfection, and nearly 
three years more to devise a way of beating 
it. But the latter was accomplished before 
the American forces reached France in any 
great numbers. We like to think that it was 
the gallant impetuosity of our men that did 
away with the deadly monotony of the long 
deadlock between opposing trenches, but it 



was in fact the British tank, and our men 
reached the scene of war just in time for the 
new style of warfare — to which indeed they 
showed themselves peculiarly adapted. 

Examination of a map of the western 
theatre of war during any period after the 
initial rush of the Huns into France will show 
at the eastern end of the battle fine a sharp 
triangle reaching into French territory with 
its eastern end at a little town called Pont- 
a-Mousson, on the German border just south 
of Metz, its apex at St. Mihiel; and the other 
leg of the triangle reaching off to the north- 
west behind Verdun. This salient had been 
created at the time of the initial invasion of 
France. It had persisted throughout the 
long and savage battles for Verdun. The 
French had repeatedly sought to iron it out 
but without avail. Now, as the railroads 
from the American bases on the channel ran 
directly toward that spot and as the largest 
American concentration camp was at Toul 
just south of the salient, it seemed to offer it- 
self very prominently for American attention 
— and presently it received that attention. 

In his official report General Pershing says 
that the reduction of the St. Mihiel salient 
had early been planned as the first indepen- 
dent American offensive action on a large 
scale. The disposition of troops in prepara- 
tion for it began as early as August 30th, and 
before its completion entailed preparations 
which the General describes thus: 

The preparation for a complicated operation against 
the formidable defenses in front of us included the 
assembling of divisions and of corps and army artillery, 
transport, aircraft, tanks, ambulances, the location 
of hospitals, and the molding together of all of the 
elements of a great modern army with its own rail- 
heads, supplied directly by our own Service of Supply. 
The concentration for this operation, which was to 
be a surprise, involved the movement, mostly at 
night, of approximately 600,000 troops, and required 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




for its success the most careful attention to every 
detail. 

A correspondent of the Chicago Tribune 
who was present during the preparation and 
the assault itself goes a little more into detail 
and some quotation from his description of 
the infinity of detailed preparation which 
precedes a modern battle will be of interest. 

In order to take 152 square miles of territory and 
seventy-two villages, captured in the crushing of the 
St. Mihiel salient, the American Army first issued 
100,000 detail maps covering in minutest detail the 
character of the terrain of the St. Mihiel salient, includ- 




An elaborately camouflaged tank ready to bi 



ing natural defenses, and telling how each was manned 
and by what enemy units. These maps were corrected 
in some instances as late as the day before the battle 
opened, and were supplemented by 40,000 photographs. 
These were for the guidance of the artillery and infantry, 
and were scattered among the officers of the whole 
army a few hours before the zero hour. 

Five thousand miles of wire was laid in the St. Mihiel 
salient and on its borders before the attack, and im- 
mediately after the Americans advanced 6,000 tele- 
phone instruments were connected with these wires 
throughout the battle zone. 

When the battle opened on the morning of September 

12, 1918, trucks started northward at a speed of seven 

miles an hour, unreeling wires across No Man's Land 

until they reached points where the 

reels had to be carried by Signal 

Corps men afoot. 

Such work made it possible for ah 
American officer whose troops had 
flanked the foe's trenches to telephone 
back, informing the artillery of the 
exact location of the enemy trenches 
and in a few minutes bringing a 
deluge of metal on the Boche. 

Telephone squads carried these 
lines up to the fighting front on 
Thursday morning and soon in the 
triangular battleground there was a 
telephone system in operation that 
would have been adequate to handle 
the telephone business of a city of 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 211 




British Tommies on the Fampoux Road in France attracted by a stranded monster which tried to negotiate too big a ditch for 

even a tank 



212 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




SciniL- \ jiikns arc sciAiiin with the British as members of the crew of this land battleship 



100,000, and it was going at top efficiency. The 
branch lines were connected with the main axis, which 
was established through the middle of the salient. 
Ten thousand men were busily engaged in operating the 
system. Many of the phone exchanges were on wheels. 
Several thousand carrier pigeons supplemented the 
Signal Corps. 




The kind of a tank which can wander over a shell crater as large as the e.xcavation 
for a good-sized house without inconvenience 



In the midst of the battle other Signal Corps men 
took more than 10,000 feet of movie film depicting 
war scenes and many thousands of photographs. 

Extensive hospital facilities were arranged, including 
thirty-five hospital trains, 16,000 beds in the advanced 
areas, and 55,000 others farther back. Happily, less 
than 10 per cent, of the hospital facilities were needed, 
and therefore our surgeons and 
nurses were enabled to give the 
finest care to our wounded and 
sick, and every attention to the 
German wounded. 

In the course of the operation 
^ our guns fired approximately 
ji/^t'^ Y^ '^- 1,500,000 shells. Forty-eight hun- 
•^'^•, fc-'.j dred trucks carried men and sup- 
plies into the lines. They were 
assisted by miles of American rail- 
roads of standard and narrow 
gauge, and the cars were pulled by 
engines marked "U. S. A." 

Formidable as all this prep- 
aration sounds it was more 
than justified by the facilities 
for defense possessed by the 
enemy. After the victory was 
won Thomas Johnson, a well- 
known American correspon- 
dent, went over the ground 
our boys had taken and de- 
scribes its nature thus: 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



213 




The French cemetery at Pont-a-Mousson which the Germans shelled during a memorial service, thereby killing and maiming 

many women and children 



The further one goes the stronger becomes the im- 
pression of how strongly fortified was this whole place. 
It abounded in dugouts deep and strong and well built, 
while in all villages and many other places were the 
famous steel and concrete German pill boxes. Amer- 
ican officers and soldiers were eating German food and 
drinking German beer in the captured dugouts. 

To get the full flavor of the victory the best way is to 
go over the battlefield from our old front line starting 
at Seicheprey, where the Americans had their first 
real fight with the enemy last April. Passing Remieres 
Wood on the right one rides through our old trenches, 
then goes into No Man's Land and across to Lahay- 
ville, Sainteaussant, and Richecourt — villages that 
thousands of Americans have looked at longingly since 
Jan. 18, when the first American force took over the 
sector facing them. One trip over the ground is enough 
to show that the defenses the Americans went up 
against here were as strong as those on the Somme, 
Chemin des Dames or any other famous battle sectors 
of the west front. 

The greatest fortress of all was Montsec itself, and 
nothing that has ever been said about that solitary 
peak can convey an idea of how it dominated and looked 
down upon our old trenches around Seicheprey, Xivray, 
Beaumont, Rambucourt, Bouconville, and all those 
other towns that one is able now for the first time to 
name as having held the Americans ever since January. 
The only way to get an idea of it is to climb to the top 
of the Woolworth tower. It dominates New York 
no more than Montsec dominates its surroundings. 
From there the Boche could see every single American 
who walked in the road or in a trench for ten miles on a 
clear day. That's not the only reason why Montsec 




Major Hyatt of the American Army standing in the mine 
crater which the Germans exploded just too soon to kill 
several thousand Americans 



214 



UNITED S r A T E S IN THE GREAT W A R 




A comparatively concealed battery position from which an American barrage fire suddenly burst upon the enemy 



seemed a great goal. It was a symbol of the future, 
for they knew that when they could take it it would 
mean the time of the fulfillment of their promise had 
come. Seeing Montsec, one realizes what a veritable 
fortress it was, not only because of its steep wooded 
sides, but because of its dugouts, which were not really 
dugouts but subterranean chambers capable of holding 
thousands of men. They were made of steel, concrete, 
stone, mortar, brick, forty or fifty feet within the moun- 
tainside. Some built in 191 5 are ornamented with the 
German coat of arms. They are littered with maps, 
papers, clothing, knicknacks, showing they were fur- 
nished in great comfort with beds, chairs, and pictures. 




A heavy gun " planted " and held in silence until the German defenses had been 
destroyed by an American barrage which the prisoners later described as the most 
terrifying and deadly they had ever known 



The Germans had four years to do it in. These 
dugouts, facing north and so difficult of observation 
by the Allies, had fine porches, pretty tables with a 
splendid view across to the Meuse heights, and it was 
there the German officers used to drink their beer. 
One of them had a hammock slung under the trees and 
another had an open air bath tub, but great gaps 
showed where our shells had crashed in upon them and 
one big dugout, by name "Villa Minna," had completely 
caved in. The occupants lay on their faces on the 
floor. In another dugout lay a dead German Officer, 
while beside him lay a dog silently watching his dead 
master. He wouldn't make a responsive sign to coax- 
ing or whistling. 

It took but thirty-six lines 
in General Pershing's final 
report to tell the story of the 
victory at St. Mihiel as its 
important phases appeared to 
the Commander-in-Chief. 
But the general reader will 
ask something more than this 
succinct summary that ema- 
nated from the mind of a 
soldier unused to writing, and 
who seemed to think that 
gallant fighting was all in the 
day's work: 

After four hours' artillery prepar- 
ation, the seven American divisions 
in the front line advanced at 5 a. m. 
on Sept. 12, assisted by a limited 
number of tanks manned partly by 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



215 




These American soldiers and tlieir horses are snatching a brief respite from the thrilling but exhausting occupation of chasing 

the fleeing Germans 



Americans and partly by French. These divisions, 
accompanied by groups of wire cutters and others 
armed with bangalore torpedoes, went through the 
successive bands of barbed wire that protected the 
enemy's front line and support trenches, in irresisti- 
ble waves on schedule time, breaking down all defense 
of an enemy demoralized by the great volume of our 
artillery fire and our sudden approach out of the fog. 

Our 1st Corps advanced to Thiaucourt, while our 4th 
Corps curved back to the southwest through Nonsard. 
The 2d Colonial French Corps made the slight advance 
required of it on very difficult ground, and the 5th 
Corps took its three ridges and repulsed a counter- 
attack. A rapid march brought reserve regiments of a 
division of the 5th Corps into Vigneulles in the early 
morning, where it linked up with patrols of our 4th 
Corps, closing the salient and forming a new line west 
of Thiaucourt to Vigneulles and beyond Fresnes-en- 
Woevre. At the cost of only 7,000 casualties, mostly 
light, we had taken 16,000 prisoners and 443 guns, a 
great quantity of material, released the inhabitants of 
many villages from enemy domination, and established 
our lines in a position to threaten Metz. This signal 
success of the American First Army in its first offensive 
was of prime importance. The Alhes found they had a 
formidable army to aid them, and the enemy learned 
finally that he had one to reckon with. 

The American Army was disposed some- 
what Hke a pair of pincers and right sharply 
did the enemy get pinched. One tip of the 
pincers was near Pont-a-Mousson, the other 
just south of Verdun on the Meuse. The 
pivot between the two was at St. Mihiel and 




The famous church of Jeanne d'Arc standing on the com- 
manding eminence of the solitary hill of Pont-a-Mousson, 
with a statue of Jeanne d'Arc on top of its steeple, which was 
shelled by the Germans all through the war, but never hit 



2l6 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




The French fortress of Pont-a-Mousson on the Moselle River. The peaceful and beautiful scene of desperate and hideous fighting 




American military police guarding a German gas \\ a 
station after the capture of Thiaucourt in France 



each arm of the pincers was about ten miles 
long. After the artillery had made play for 
some four hours these two arms began coming 
together, not at all slowly but irresistibly. 
From one claw-tip to the other was about 
thirty miles. 

It took two days to bring the two together, 
but It was accomplished and thereby about 
two hundred square miles of French territory 
was wrested from the Huns. When the clos- 
ing movement began this bit of land had held 
about 100,000 of the enemy but he slipped 
away with all the speed he might. The hard- 
est fighting took place on the southern leg of 
the salient, running northward toward Thiau- 
court. The terrain there was low and marshy 
and the field before the advancing Americans 
was swept by fire from the French forts. The 
\ery hardest fighting occurred on the west 
side of the salient on a hillside called Les 
Esparges. This had been assaulted by the 
French repeatedly in the past but to no avail. 
Now after vigorous artillery' preparation 
French and Americans together swept up the 
slope in a rush that never stopped until they 
had reached the top of a series of elevations 
that extended almost to St. Mihiel and that, 
because of its commanding height had been 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



217 



of the utmost strategic advantage to the Ger- bells, statues, water pipes, kitchen utensils 

mans. Barbed wire, dense thickets of under- were seized and sent back to Germany. And 

brush, and innumerable nests of machine guns when they were finally whipped, and every 

had to be met and overcome, but the assail- responsible officer must have known that the 

ants were equal to all. The American artillery war was ended, they fled destroying practic- 

practicewascredited with playing a great part ally everything that they could not carry 

in the victory. The hail of shells cut the away. This was one of the reasons why 

barbed wire and mow"ed down the trees and American soldiers listened with cynical in- 
bushes that impeded the path 



It is not altogether gratifying 
to out national pride, how- 
ever, to learn from General 
Pershing's report that while 
the gunners were ours the 
guns belonged to the French 
—we were not yet able to 
equip our troops with this 
most essential arm. 

It may be doubted whether 
any victory of equal propor- 
tions during the great war 
was so speedily won. Withm 
two days the Germans were 
driven out of the salient, 
while those who were slow to 
go had been captured. At 
one point a whole Hun regi- 
ment was surrendered in a 
body with all its officers, and 
to expedite matters, after the 
men had been relieved of 
their arms, the regiment was 
marched to the rear under 
command of its own chiefs, 
and with a few American 
cavalrymen ridmg alongside 
like stockmen riding herd. 
Everywhere were stacks of 
abandoned munitions and 
supplies. At one point a big 
American shell had exploded 
on a railway just m time to 
stop the progress of a retiring 
train with twenty-two cars 
loaded with machine guns, 
big guns, and ammunition, 
such fortunate shot stopped the thievish en 
emy carrying away loot. It is said that at 
few places along the battle-lines did the Ger- 
mans give fuller play to their destructive and 
thievish proclivities than at Thiaucourt which 
they had occupied for four years. The banks 
had been plundered first by "requisitions" 
and at the last moment by the simpler process 
of breaking open their vaults and taking all 
that was there. Metal of every sort, church 




The bust of Jeanne d'Arc on the front of this house was carved by a French soldier 
in a quarry at Thiaucourt within one thousand feet of the German lines 



Unhappily no 



difference to the cry for aid which the Ger- 
mans set up twenty-four hours after the arm- 
istice was signed. The welcome of the liber- 
ated population of St. Mihiel to the incoming 
Americans, among whom was Newton D. 
Baker, Secretary of War, was one of the most 
pathetic spectacles of the whole long conflict. 
With the St. Mihiel salient thus obliter- 
ated the work of the American armies did not 
slow up in the shghtest degree. Before them 
to the north lay three objectives, each of 



2l8 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



great importance. Within range of our great 
guns lay Metz, the rich and populous capital 
of Lorraine, and a German fortress of the 
highest rank. Beyond Metz, only a few 
miles, were the coal fields of Briey, the real 
reason for the seizure of Lorraine by Prussia 
in 1 871 and without the possession of which 
the great Krupp works and the German Army 





Ifi 


M 


1 




t|'i| 


m 


1 




m 


D 


1 




^^M^hi 


a 


1 


'He 


1 


K 


^ 


i 






Sr 


i aM 


1 ^ 










^ " ■ 


M V 










' M 


',-} 








i 


r . « 


^ t 








■ J ^ 


~'^mad ' ji 


» '^ 






^ 


^KS ' 1 










' ^^^^^h^hhIL_ 


^^. jt^^KKu 1 












H^^^^^^^Bm '1 






^L^ 




^^^Bi^^^ 


^1 




^mri^^^^^l 


^H 


1 



A glimpse of what the Germans did to the noble cathedral of Arras 

could not have been kept going throughout 
the war. And straight up the valley of 
the Meuse lay Sedan, a mere village the 
fields about which had been the scene of the 
fatal defeat sustained by the French armies 
in 1870. Its importance now lay in the fact 
that through it ran one of the chief railways 
connecting France with Germany. With 
this railway cut one of the two great avenues 
for the supply of the German armies at the 
front would be closed, and one of the hnes of 
retreat, should those armies meet with disas- 



ter, would be shut upon them. And off to 
the west the forces of our Allies, and our owr 
men too, were pressing the Huns with such 
vigor that already they were in full retreai 
and their need for all the available routes baclil 
to the Fatherland was becoming very evident 
to them. The importance of the American 
operations north of Verdun was sufficiently 
clear to the enemy, and oui 
commanders were prepared 
to see the strongest German 
commands hurried to that 
point of danger, as indeed 
happened. Of our initial ad- 
vance General Pershing has! 
this to report: 



On the night of Sept. 25 oun 
troops quietly took the place of the: 
French who thinly held the line ini 
this sector, which had long beeni^' 
inactive. In the attack which be-- 
gan on the 26th we drove through 1 
the barbed wire entanglements and I 
the sea of shell craters across Noi 
Man's Land, mastering all the first- ■ 
line defenses. Continuing on the ■ 
27th and 28th, against machine 
guns and artillery of an increasing 
number of enemy reserve divisions, 
we penetrated to a depth of from 
three to seven miles and took the 
village of Montfaucon and its com- 
manding hill, and Exermont, Ger- 
court, Cuisy, Septsarges, Malan- 
court, Ivoiry, Epinonville, Char- 
pentry. Very, and other villages. 
East of the Meuse one of our divi- 
sions, which was with the 2d 
Colonial French Corps, captured 
Marcheville and Rieville, giving 
further protection to the flank of 
our main body. We had taken 
10,000 prisoners, we had gained our 
point of forcing the battle into 
the open, and were prepared for 
the enemy's reaction, which was 
bound to come, as he had good roads and ample railroad 
facilities for bringing up his artillery and reserves. 

In the chill rain of dark nights our engineers had to 
build new roads across spongy, shell-torn areas, repair 
broken roads beyond No Man's Land, and build bridges. 
Our gunners, with no thought of sleep, put their 
shoulders to wheels and drag-ropes to bring their guns 
through the mire in support of the infantry, now under 
the increasing fire of the enemy's artillery. Our 
attack had taken the enemy by surprise, but, quickly 
recovering himself, he began to fire counterattacks in 
strong force, supported by heavy bombardments, with 
large quantities of gas. From Sept. 28 until Oct. 4 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



219 




American cavalry advancing to the capture of Thiaucourt 




All that is left of a large and flourishing French railroad station in the war zone 



220 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Germans used to bring in the wounded at an adva 




ritish cavalry on the French front waiting in j 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



221 




:'f ' ■ 



-8s^■;•«Mi- 



tSaiTr .1 



France resting after a long and hard ride 



I Underwood ix Underwood 




racking idleness for the order to go forward to the attack 



© Underwood & Underwood 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 







These loaves of bread were brought one morning by army truck to thi desolate spot in the Argonne Forest. In a drenchii 
rain they were thrown off in this pile for our doughboys 



we maintained the oflFensive against patches of woods 
defended by snipers and continuous lines of machine 
guns, and pushed forward our guns and transport, 




This is what happened to 360,000 of the homes of France 



seizing strategical points in preparation for further 
attacks. 

The Forest of the Argonne, in which the 
fiercest fighting of this period occurred was 
itself admirably fitted for defensive purposes. 
It was dense with underbrush, cut up by gul- 
lies and outcroppings of limestone ridges, 
with but few roads, dark and almost impene- 
trable. It is such a region as the Wilderness 
in which the armies of Grant and Lee grap- 
pled in our Civil War. Through it extended 
in sinuous and sinister course the western end 
of the famous Hindenburg line — the Kriem- 
hilde Stellung, the Germans called this part 
of it, with an allusion to the Wagnerian opera. 
No ordinary defensive work was this, but a 
network of trenches, big and little, guarded 
in front by wire enough to fence in a whole 
nation, concreted, and provided with bomb- 
proof dugouts, some of which attained a de- 
gree of comfort amounting to luxury, thanks 
to the neighboring homes which the Germans 
had despoiled of the furniture and even pic- 
tures. Some had electric lighted tunnels 
reaching far back into the streets of a neigh- 
boring town whereby the defenders might go 
out to seek rest and amusement in safety. 
Much of the line was constructed of soHd 
masonry, reenforced with bars of steel. The 
defenders had foreseen that their assailants 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



223 




The four fighting sons of a fighting father-l.ft to right: Archie Roosevelt talking to Theodore, Jr at Plattsburg; Quentin 
Rooseveh, who was killed in France (upper right) and Kermit Roosevelt marching at Plattsburg 



224 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



would rely largely upon tanks in the attack 
and had made preparations for them. Walls 
were built across all roads of masonry suf- 
ficiently heavy to withstand even the forceful 
push of a tank. Traps dug deep in the earth 
were cunningly concealed by a surface layer 
that would give way immediately upon feeling 
the weight of a tank. Barbed wire was 
everywhere and back of this wire were ma- 
chine guns innumerable that started up with 
their murderous crackle the instant the wire 



gun from :i tree on the other side of the wire. Then 
another and another, and twenty machine nuns are 
going. 

Their aim i.s poor, and their flashes give our rifles a 
chance. Our doughboys pile through that wire fence 
and through the underbrush and stack up against 
another fence ten feet farther on. The range has been 
telephoned back to the boche batteries and shells begin 
to fall all around. 

They cut that barbed wire and then stumble on to 
concealed wire entanglements covered with brush. They 
climb these. All the time, from the dark, German snipers 




The wreckage which was the French tuun uf \'aii\ 



was touched. And back of it all were not 
less than 350,000 of the best German troops 
whose numbers were steadily increased as the 
battle progressed. 

The accounts of some eye-witnesses of this 
struggle may be fitly quoted to round out 
General Pershing's official account: 

Turn your attention to the all-night fighting in the 
Argonne Forest, writes Edwin L. James, in the New 
York Times, znd realize what our men are going through. 
It is raining and there is inky darkness. The boche 
is shelling heavily and pouring gas into all the valleys. 
Our men must travel on the hills. Those hills are being 
raked by thousands of German 77s. 

The Americans in the advance hit the barbed wire. 
Rifles are slung across shoulders and pliers are pulled 
out. Busily our men cut wire after wire. The noise 
they make brings the nasty rat-a-tat of a Hun machine 



and machine gun men, always with time enough to fall 
back, are taking their toll. Now our line comes upon 
a broad trench with more wire. In the dark our boys 
leap across it; some fall into it. Others get over at the 
first attempt and pull out their pliers to cut more wires. 

All this time it is raining and cold, very cold. The 
inky blackness there in the forest is broken by streams 
of fire from machine guns and the intermittent flash 
of some German sniper, seeming to taunt the youthful 
Americans struggling against such devilish odds. 

It takes stout hearts, it takes real men to stand this. 
But it was over two and a half miles of this sort of 
terrain that one American division tore its way through 
the Argonne Forest. This was the worst part. 
Farther on the wire was less frequent, and our men in 
the Argonne, having crashed through the Bois d'Apre- 
mont, are now reaching a zone where the roads are 
good, and the advance is easier. 

Since the French tried vainly to take it in 1915 the 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



225 




1 he spinning room of a weaving and spinning factory on the River Oise in France vphich was systematically ruined by the 
Germans because it was not convenient to steal it and take it to Germany 




A sugar factory on the River Aisne in France deliberately destroyed by the Germans without the slightest military excuse 



226 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



Germans had used the Argonne Forest as a rest area — a 
sort of recreation ground for their war-worn troops, 
and had built such defenses as they thought would defy 
all attempts frontally. For three j-ears the Argonne 
has been a kind of pleasure resort for boche fighters. 
It is worth years of any one's life to see what they had 
built there on the pretty wooded slopes and through 
tangles of verdant beauty. 

There were underground palaces with electric illumi- 
nation and with hotel ranges to cook for the officers. 
On a slope just a mile back of the front line there is nn 



fight. Differing little in character from the 
earlier fighting it continued until October 
loth when the wood was wholly cleared of the 
enemy. 

It was during this period of the battle that 
occurred the incident of the "lost battalion" 
that stirred American emotions as did few 
occurrences of the war. A party of Ameri- 
cans, — largely "Yiddishers" from the east 
side of New York — led hv Major Whittlesey, 




American soldiers in the ruins of the town of \'aux in Franc 



enormous cave fronting north. Its front was built 
of brownstone, on which had been chased pillars and 
other carvings. Above its big portals was the word 
"Offizierhaus," and above that an enormous iron cross. 
In this club there were a large dining hall and perhaps 
ten rooms. The inside was lined with concrete and 
wooden floors had been laid. At the dining table were 
mahogany chairs, filched from some nearby French 
chateau. Over the General's place hung an electric 
call bell, and electric lights were strung down the middle 
of the table. It represented the luxury of war. This 
was just one of hundreds and hundreds of these dug-in 
and scientifically made dwelling places. 

The progress of the Argonne-Meuse offen- 
sive is divided by General Pershing in his re- 
port into three parts, and betw^een his ac- 
counts of these he diverges to tell the story 
of the work of the Americans on the more 
western battle fronts. We may, however, 
proceed with the Argonne story to its com- 
pletion. October 4th began w'hat the gen- 
eral calls the second phase of the Argonne 



had pressed onward into the depths of the for- 
est until suddenly they found themselves out 
of sight or hearing of any of their fellows. This 
in itself was not extraordinary for the thickets 
were such as to make it difficult for support- 
ing bodies to keep in touch with each other, 
but presently it was discovered that they 
were surrounded by Boches. A runner was 
sent back to tell of their plight, and curiously 
enough the commander to whom he reported 
proceeded to send him on to New York so 
that the first news that he had of the really 
desperate condition of his former comrades 
was when he reached home and the reporters 
came thronging about him with the story of 
the lost battalion. 

Meantime efforts were being made to re- 
lieve the beleaguered battalion. Their posi- 
tion was well enough known to their friends, 
but so large a body of Germans had got in be- 
hind them, in a deserted trench that it seemed 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 227 




General Pershing in a typical pose which suggests the force and poise of the man 



228 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Some doughboys and transport drivers in the Argonne Forest comparing notes on German trophies 




Stragglers from many units organized into reserves which were sent forward in time to help counter-attack 




/ir American Red Croib Worker at the Well of the Virgin in Nazareth. Practically all the Red Cross work in the 
Near East is being conducted by the American Red Cross 



230 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



for a time impossible to get help to them. 
In all nearly 500 men were thus cut off, and 
the question of food soon became serious. 
Attempts to relieve them by attacks upon 
the enemy failed, but had value because they 
prevented the foe from annihilating the little 
band. Relief by air was tried. Fourteen 
airplane missions were sent out dropping 




The bridge on the Marne at Chateau-Thierry. It was twice blown up and the 
river was choked with German dead 



two tons of food and considerable ammuni- 
tion at points where it was hoped they could 
be reached. Homing pigeons were also drop- 
ped by parachute in their lines so they could 
communicate with the main body. To a 
great degree all these efforts at relief had to 
be made by guess as the forest was so thick 
our aviators could see nothing of the missing 
men. A final and desperate attack on the 
enemy at last broke through and the men 
were saved on the brink of starvation. While 



their fortunes seemed at the lowest ebb a 
blindfolded man appeared among them com- 
ing from the enemy's lines. He proved to be 
an American who had been taken prisoner and 
he bore a note reading: 

"Americans, you are surrounded on all 
sides. Surrender in the name of humanity. 
You will be well treated." 

Major Whittlesey hesitated 
not a moment. 

"Go to hell," he cried in a 
voice so loud that the Germans 
hidden in the thickets must 
have heard him, while the 
men around cheered loudly 
even in their weakness. It 

Bl 1 might have been their death 
I warrant they cheered, but 
it was not, for relief came in 
a few hours. 

The third phase of the 
Argonne-Meuse struggle im- 
mediately preceded the Ger- 
man surrender and is thus de- 
scribed by General Pershing: 



With comparatively well-rested 
divisions, the final advance in the 
Meuse-Argonne front was begun on 
November i. Our increased artillery 
force acquitted itself magnificently 
in support of the advance, and the 
enemy broke before the determmed 
infantry, which, by its persistent 
fighting of the past weeks and the 
dash of this attack, had overcome 
his will to resist. The 3d Corps 
took Ancreville, Doulcon, and An- 
devanne, and the 5th Corps took 
Landres et St. Georges and pressed 
through successive linesof resistance 
to Bayonville and Chennery. On 
the 2d the ist Corps joined in the 
movement, which now became an 
impetuous onslaught that could not 
be stayed. 

On the 3d advance troops surged 
pursuit, some by motor trucks, while 



forward 

the artillery pressed along the country roads close 
behind. The 1st Corps reached Authe and Chatillon- 
Sur-Bar, the 5th Corps, Fosse and Nouart, and 
the 3d Corps, Halles, penetrating the enemy's line 
to a depth of twelve miles. Our large-calibre guns 
had advanced and were skillfully brought into posi- 
tion to fire upon the important lines at Montmedy, 
Longuyon, and Conflans. Our 3d Corps crossed the 
Meuse on the 5th and the other corps, in the full 
confidence that the day was theirs, eagerly cleared the 
way of machine guns as they swept northward, main- 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



.231 




© Underwood & Underwood 

General Edwards bestowing the Congressional medal of honor upon Lieutenant Colonel Whittlesey who commanded the 

"Lost Battalion" in the Forest of Argonne 



232 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




A bag of German prisoners taken by the Americans during the fighting of September, 1918. They would not look so contented 
if they were treated as our men were treated when captured by the Germans 




This is the road and the place where the American Marines first came into action against the onrushing German hordes 
m their great drive toward Paris in the summer of 19 18. The Marines held, and here started the great Allied offensive which 
ended in victory. 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



233 



taining complete co-ordination throughout. On the 
6th, a division of the 1st Corps reached a point on the 
Meuse opposite Sedan, twenty-five miles from our line 
of departure. The strategical goal which was our 
highest hope was gained. We had cut the enemy's 
main line of communications, and nothing but sur- 
render or an armistice could save his army from com- 
plete disaster. 

Such is the comparatively cold and color- 
less account of what was in fact the most 
savagely fought battle of the war. Whether 
the enemy knew that his surrender was near 
•at hand or not, he fought as though nothing 
were further from his mind. The menace 
that lay in the advance of the American Army 



upon his best line of retreat was very evident 
to him and he hurried to the threatened spot 
troops from every part of his battle line. 
From Flanders, from Cambrai, from St. 
Quentin they were brought, even while those 
places themselves were menaced by other Ally 
forces. General Pershing did not m anyway 
underestimate the strength of the force thus 
being aligned against him. His best troops 
were put into the advance and fresh divisions 
hurried up from the great camp at Toul as 
fast as motor lorries could carry them. Be- 
fore the troops could get near the Mezieres- 
Sedan railroad, their first objective, the big 
guns began work upon it with a view to mak- 




Brigadier General Douglas McArthur talking to a group of his boys of the famous Rainbow Division. The Division gained its 
name from the fact that the men came from a large number of different States 



234 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



235 




A breakfast of iron rations in the Forest of Malancourt, one of the fields which saw the hardest fighting between Dead Man's 

Hill and Montfaucon in France 



ing it useless to the Germans. Great naval 
14-inch guns had been brought by rail to the 
battlefield, and mounted on flat cars were 
pushed forward as fast as the lines were ad- 
vanced. Blue-jackets from the American 
navy manned them and if those who stayed 
on the sailors' proper element failed to get a 
shot at the Boche afloat these land going gun- 
ners had plenty of opportunity to show their 
skill. 

The rest of the story of the American push 
for Sedan is simply a record of steady prog- 
ress, which in time developed into a com- 
plete piercing of the German lines and the 
pursuit of the enemy as he fled frantically 
for any sanctuary. It reached the point at 
last at which the Yankees mounted on huge 
trucks, shoutmg scores of them, dashed 
madly up roads and byways chasing down 
the retreatmg Huns. Sedan was in sight. 
On another part of our line Metz was so 
near that our great naval guns might have 
done for it what the German cannon had done 
for scores of picturesque Flemish towns, save 
that Americans had no desire to shine as 
vandals. One after another the foe's most 
cherished positions were taken. The vol- 
ume of prisoners became so great as to be 
embarrassing. In six days from the begin- 
ning of General Pershing's third phase they 
had smashed the German Freya line, liber- 




Colonel Edward M. House, President Wilson's 
one of America's five Commissioners to the Peace 



idviser and 
Conference 



236 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




1 Ik- h.iirage fire has just been lifted and these men a 

ated hundreds of French villages and thou- 
sands of the French people on the bank of 
the Meuse, taken Sedan, cut the railroad 
and were fired with such confidence bred of 
these successes that nothing could have been 
asked of them which they would not have 
cheerfully undertaken. 

Meanwhile in the battle sectors farther to 
the west Americans were playing their part, 
though not as single detached armies, with a 
definite task to be performed alone. They 
were with the British in the victorious attack 
upon Cambrai. They fought shoulder to 
shoulder with the French at Laon and at 
Conflans. They marched into Belgium with 
a portion of the Belgian Army, and thus 
gained the inestimable boon of being able to 
participate in person in the redemption of 
that martyred nation from the bondage she 
had mcurred in the service of civilization. 
Ostende and Zeebrugge, badly smashed by 
the persistent work of the British Navy, 
had been occupied by the Belgian Army on 
October 20th, and the Germans began their 
retreat from the remainder of the country 
they had so barbarously misused. The 
Belgians and French followed fast upon their 
heels, whipping them on the Lys River, and 



Ji 11^1 .u .iCI.^s^ N, >1..:. - l.iiul to Strike the enemy 

driving them out of Ghent. The British 
pushed over the border between Valenciennes 
and Tournai, and shortly thereafter captured 
the former town in an assault led by Canadian 
troops with notable gallantry. To the east 
of Valenciennes the field was left to the 
French under General Mangin who drove 
the fleeing Germans bej^ond the Belgian 
border, taking Mauberge, which before this 
war unsettled all military values had been 
esteemed one of the world's greatest for- 
tresses. Still farther to the east the French 
and American lines were in liaison on the 
front between the Aisne and the Meuse. 
Here both of these allies were pushing for- 
ward indomitably with the foe recoiling 
before them, not in disorder but in hopeless 
retreat when suddenh' from the General 
Headquarters came the message, not whoUj" 
welcome, to suspend all attacks as an armis- 
tice had been signed.* 

At the moment the Germans were thor- 
oughlv beaten on ever\' front. The morale 
of their armies had been shattered and al- 
though demoralization had not j'et set in, 



*A more detailed account of the operations of the Allied 
armies, as distinct from that of the United States will be found 
in "The Nations at War." 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



237 



veteran military observers agree that had 
the campaign continued for another ten days 
the orderly retreat would have degenerated 
into a frantic rout and that the armies of 
the Kaiser would have been utterly de- 
stroyed. 

The world hardly expected German sur- 
render at that moment. The masses of the 
men fighting in the Allied armies certainly 
did not apprehend it, and if the general 
commanders knew they had held their peace. 
Everywhere it was expected that the Ger- 
mans would hold out until winter might 
bring them a respite from the savage attacks 
of their enemies and a chance to recuperate 
and fight for better terms in the spring. But 
nothing that had been done by the German 
high command from the day of its precipitate 
entrance upon the war to this moment of 
sudden and ignominious surrender showed 
more cool, if ignoble, intelligence than this 
action. For the German fight 
was irrevocably lost. She was 
left without alHes, the surren- 
der of Austria-Hungary having 
opened a back door into her do- 
main that she had no adequate 
means of closing. It was all 
very well to say that in earlier 
years campaigning had been 
stopped with the first sign of 
winter. But who could tell what 
these Americans would do ? And 
they were coming over in such 
prodigious numbers despite all 
the figures of the German pro- 
fessors showing that they could 
never get enough ships to serve 
for their transport, and the prom- 
ises of Von Tirpitz that his 
submarines would speedily dis- 
pose of them. Even if winter 
was to quiet things down there 
was still remaining at least six 
weeks before winter's arrival. 
Sorely pressed the German armies 
could feel no certainty of living 
out that six weeks. If they tried 
it the Americans in the Argonne 
were certain to prevent them from 
any possible escape in the hour 
of disaster. So the High Com- 
mand that had so bravely or- 
dained the crushing of little Bel- 
gium, and attempted the destruc- 
tion of France, less by military 



prowess than by treacherously violating a 
treaty, turned abject suppliants and begged 
like whipped children for the stoppage of 
hostilities. 

The armistice which brought this greatest 
war of all ages to its end was not completed 
without prolonged diplomatic negotiation. 
Austria and Germany both turned to the 
United States in the moment of their extrem- 
ity, thinking probably that they had less to 
fear from this nation than from any of the 
other belligerents toward whom they had 
been guilty of the most indescribable bar- 
barity and savagery. It was a distmction 
accorded us by the world's greatest criminal 
which most Americans would have been glaa 
to have escaped. However, the position of 
first recipient of the Huns' plea for mercy 
was ours whether desired or not. In the 
course of a world-wide discussion of the pur- 
poses of the war President Wilson had enun- 




General Tasker H. Bliss, one of the five American Peace Commissioners 



238 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



ciated Fourteen Points on which he said 
the United States would insist. Austria 
opened the peace negotiations by proclaim- 
ing her willingness to accept these conditions 
and asking for an armistice that peace in 
accordance with them might be discussed. 
Germany speedily followed suit, and, upon 
the suggestion of the President that the 
German government had shown itself to be 
one with which no nation could treat with 
any confidence, declared that the form of 
that government had been amended in a way 
to make it more nearly 
coincide with the 
democratic principles 
which the President 
sought to establish, 
and that the men 
guilty of the long 
record of perfidy 
which had sullied Ger- 
many's annals had 
been deprived of 
power. How far this 
plea was in accord 
with fact is yet to be 
established. But after 
due submission of the 
German propositions 
to an Allied War 
Council sitting at 
Versailles, terms of an 
armistice were pre- 
pared and submitted 
to the German Gov- 
ernment. In this coun- 
cil Col. Edward M. 
House and General 
Tasker H. Bliss rep- 
resented the United 
States. 

Meantime the work 
of the armies contin- 
ued with unremitting 
vigor. All the time 
the council was hold- 
ing its sessions our soldiers in the Argonne 
Forest, on the bank of the Meuse, around 
Conflans and Laon and on the Freya Line 
were pushing their attacks and meeting with 
uninterrupted success. Our allies were gain- 
ing at every point and the demoralization 
within the German lines was spreading daily. 
There are not lacking those that hold that 
the granting of the armistice was premature 
and unfortunate, and that a fortnight more 




General Liggett and General 
Chateau-Thierry. Evidently 



of war would have done more for future peace, 
by utterly crushing present German strength, 
than can any provisions to be made by the 
final peace conference, however drastic the 
latter may be. 

But there was no desire for delay in the 
German ranks. Promptly on learning that 
they would be received the German dele- 
gates, two Generals and an Admiral in uni- 
form, and two civilians representing the 
government crossed the lines under protection 
of a white flag and sought General Foch's 
headquarters. They 
were received with 
chill courtesy, and the 
conditions of a truce 
were read to them by 
the Marshal himself. 
Neither amendment, 
nor even debate was 
permitted. The Ger- 
mans might take what 
was offered, or go back 
to continue the fight- 
ing. For the latter 
they had no stomach, 
and, facing the pres- 
ence of defeat and 
knowing that delay 
would add only to the 
severity of the terms, 
while perhaps result- 
ing in the devastation 
of their own countr\' 
as they had devas- 
tated France and Bel- 
gium they surren- 
dered. At eleven o'- 
clock on the morning 
of November nth — 
the eleventh hour, of 
the eleventh day of 
the eleventh month — 
the signatures of the 
German Delegates 
were attached to the 
terms of the armistice and the four years of 
piracy, murder, theft, and rape which the Teu- 
tonic nations had prosecuted and called war 
ended in ignominious surrender. Within a few 
hours the Kaiser was a fugitive seeking refuge 
in Holland, to be followed by his eldest son, 
the degenerate Crown Prince and the gov- 
ernment of Germany had gone down before a 
revolutionary movement the end of which it. 
is impossible now to foresee. 



Edwards on the battlefield of 
this was not a serious moment 



CHAPTER XI 

THE NAVY IN THE WAR ITS RAPID GROWTH THE GREAT TRAINING CAMPS— 

THE DESTROYERS LOSSES OF FIGHTING SHIPS THE AVIATION CORPS — ■ 

THE FLEET IN THE NORTH SEA THE FIGHTING MARINES SURRENDER OF 

THE GERMAN FLEET 



IN ONE great 
respect the 
Great European 
War was a sur- 
prise to all observers. 
Though in it from 
the first were engaged 
as antagonists the two 
greatest naval powers 
of the world, no de- 
cisive sea battle was 
fought and the naval 
activities of the hos- 
tile battle fleets were 
confined in the main 
to keeping careful 
watch upon each 
other. The world can 
hardly tell yet what 
estimate the German 
people are putting 
upon the quahty of 
their navy which, 
after long years of 
boasting of what it intended to do did in 
fact surrender ultimately without a fight. 
It is probable that nothing contributed more 
to getting the German Empire and Great 
Britain into a position that compelled war 
than the mad desire of the Kaiser for sea- 
power. When he first declared to his people 
"Our future is upon the sea," and began 
the construction of a mighty navy he 
challenged Great Britain as she had never 
been challenged before. And when he curtly 
rejected the diplomatic suggestion of a 
British ministry for a limitation of naval 
armaments, and instead began a race of 
naval construction he virtually served notice 
upon the British, long before any specific 
cause for a clash arose, that at some time 
he intended to contest Britannia's rule of the 
V/aves. 
All the world knew for years before the 




outbreak of war of the regular function in the 
ward rooms of German men-of-war at which 
a toast was riotously drunk to "Der Tag," 
meaning thereby the day on which a German 
fleet should give battle to one under the white 
ensign of St. George. All the world found 
it hard to believe, until a certain misty 
morning off the Firth of Forth m December, 
1918, that all this after-dinner lust for combat 
would end in abject surrender. But so it 
was. The war tested to the fullest the value 
of the British Navy. It showed the worth 
of our own in many ways. But it did not in 
its entire course put the actual fighting power 
of the ships of either to the supreme test 
because they confronted a foe who was quite 
willing to take the opinion of naval statis- 
ticians that he was hopelessly outclassed 
and let it go at that, without an eff"ort to try 
the matter out by gage of battle. For him 
the sneaking submarine and finally the supine 
surrender.* 

When the war storm broke upon a terrified 
world the United States and Germany were 
regarded as about equal in naval strength. 
Some of the harsher critics of our state of 
naval unpreparedness insisted that we lagged 
far behind the nation, in which only a few 
at that time thought we were likely to find a 
foe. Instantly upon her embroilment Ger- 
many, of course, began building new ships, 
how many or of what character it was impos- 
sible to learn during the progress of the con- 
flict. And as the United States hardly woke 
up to the imminence of her own entrance 
upon the conflict before she was fairly in, it 
happened that we rushed into armed conflict 
with a nation which was superior to us afloat, 
and immeasurably so ashore. But we had 
the British Navy as ally and it alone was 



* The story of the naval operations of the war prior to the 
entrance of the United States is told in the "Nations at 
War" 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



241 



sufficient to keep the capital 
ships of the Kaiser in their 
sanctuaries. 

This was a situation not at 
all to the liking of our naval 
officers. A war without a 
battle was not a pleasing pros- 
pect to men of the service that 
produced Paul Jones, Far- 
ragut, and Dewey. For them 
were eighteen months of the 
most wearying, nerve-racking 
service imaginable without 
the stimulating excitement of 
battle, and in nearly all cases 
with the foe unseen, but 
doubly dangerous for that rea- 
son. For the fight upon the 
undersea boats the men of the 
United States Navy had been 





© KmK-1 i Herbert 

The forecastle of the U. S. S. Missouri showing shells ready for the 12-inch guns 



>= Int iriit.onal F.ltt 

American destroyer patrolling the North Sea 

eager ever since that day in 
October, 1916, when American 
destroyers tied from truck to 
keelson in the bonds of a pale 
neutrality were forced to ride 
idly on the surges of the 
Atlantic off Newport and 
watch the German submarine 
U-^J destroy one after the 
other six ships, two of them 
neutral and one having Ameri- 
cans on board. All that our 
bluejackets could do at that 
moment was to rescue the 
survivors. But the wrath and 
indignation which our men 
were then forced to suppress 
found ample expression later, 
for every officer on the watch- 
ing squadron of destroyers 
then became active in the 
warfare upon the under-sea 
vipers of the German Navy. 
For, indeed, the first squadron 
to be sent abroad by our Navy 
Department was one made up 
entirely of destroyers. It 
reached Queenstown on May 
13th and upon reporting to 
Admiral Bayley of the British 
Navy the commander was 
asked "how soon can you be 
ready for business?" 



unitf:d s'iates in the great war 



Xtll ^'■ft'*-^^^ 1 •« ^1%l% -^.^.-SMJI 



^^•fc^'- ^-* * ■■ «^*^>.-'^i^v --> « N •>..*. w; 




Supplies being taken aboard an American battleship just before her sa 
war zone in Europe 

"We can start at once, sir," was the answer. 

There was some surprise on the part of the 
British officer, to whom explanations were 
made that all preparations for active service 
had been made in the course of the voyage 
across. As a matter of fact, however, it was 
found that one quite essential preparation 
had been overlooked. The American Navy 
had always been a warm weather navy, the 
ships going south for fleet practice as soon 
as winter set in. When assigned to duty in 
the chill waters of the North Sea our men 
were found to be entirely destitute of suitable 
clothing, and were obliged to solicit the 
friendly aid of the British in procuring it 
for them. Hereafter our navy will be fit to 
serve anywhere as its vessels have been on 
duty all the way from Pola, on the Arctic 
Sea, to the southern extremity of the South 
American continent. 



First among the duties that 
the navy had to perform was 
the furnishing of trained gun- 
ners for American merchant 
ships. This work was begun 
even before the declaration of 
war, and put a heavy strain 
on a small navy none too well 
provided with marksmen. The 
larger merchant ships were 
furnished with two guns, 
usually 4-inch calibre, mounted 
fore and aft. Many instances 
of successful resistance to sub- 
marines were reported, but 
the nature of the submarine 
boat made it difficult to tell 
just how successful the armed 
merchantmen had been in 
actually destroying these 
pests. Oneof the first of these 
combats was between the 
freighter Mongolia and an 
unknown submarine in thewar 
zone. The freighter was un- 
usually well armed, carr\ang 
three guns, two of them 4-inch 
and one 6-inch, and a naval 
crew of nineteen men. The 
"sub " was sighted dead ahead 
lying in such a position that 
she could not effectively 
launch her torpedo. Before 
the Mongolia's guns could 
be brought into action the 
enemy sunk gently from sight, 
and thereupon all hands turned to scanning 
the waters for a sign of her reappearance. 
Soon the periscope broke water, and almost 
instantaneously the 6-inch gun spoke. There 
was a great up-rush of splinters amid the 
geyser of water where the shell struck, and 
as the Mongolia, at full speed ran over 
the point at which the periscope had been, in 
hope of ramming the boat, a great patch of 
oil, and debris on the surface told of disaster 
to the unseen enemy. It was never easy to 
tell with certainty whether or not a sub- 
marine had received its fatal stroke, but in 
this mstance the record was thought to be 
unquestionable. 

It is worth noting that the navy men who 
served as gunners on our ships prior to the 
declaration of war took an added risk because 
of the German contention that they were in 
irregular service and not entitled to the 



fur the 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



H3 




) Underwood & Underwood 

Stocking the American fleet with every kind of provisions and supplies before its departure for the war zone in Europe 




The American submarine squadron, the advance guard o( the Atlantic fleet, lying at anchor in the Hudson River at the tunc of 
its review by the President, just before starting for the war. They sailed for Europe a month after we declared war 



244 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




iL- U. S. merchant ship, Philaddphia, with her stern gun and her gun crew ready for self-defense during the brief period of our 
armed neutrality before we entered the war 



treatment accorded to prisoners of war if 
captured. Already a British merchant sailor, 
Captain Fryatt, who had gallantly defended 
his ship against torpedo attack had been put 
to death by the Huns when captured, and 




Loading a torpedo on to the American submarine A'-j 



our own men had this possibility to considei 
every time they went into action. But th« 
thought never deterred them nor as a mattei 
of fact did the enemy ever repeat in the casei 
of one of our men the inhuman act of which 
they had been guilty in the; 
case of Captain Fryatt. 

As the greater part of the 
service of the American Navy 
throughout the war was m the 
campaign against the sub- 
marines it will be worth while 
to give some account of the 
methods and results of this 
service before takmg up the 
work of the .larger units. 

All the vessels on foreigni 
station, and not a few scat- 
tered up and down our own' 
coast, were detailed on this 
service. The torpedo patrols 
were made up in the main,, 
of two types of craft — the 
regular destroyers, and con- 
verted yachts, or swift power 
boats built especially for the 
purpose. The latter were 
significantly enough called the 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



Hi 




The converted yacht, Druid, the first armed merchantman to leave this country in conformity with President Wilson's policy of 
armed neutrality. She sailed for Cuba with a rapid fire gun forward 



"Suicide Fleet," although in the end no dire 
disaster attended their record to give aptness 
to the phrase. Nevertheless the yacht Alcedo 
while escorting a convoy off the French coast 
was torpedoed and twenty of her crew were 
killed or wounded. The submarine that 
launched the torpedo came to the surface to 
inquire the name of the ship she had des- 
troyed, but submerged again 
without manifesting any in- 
terest in the fate of the sur- 
vivors who floated in an icy 
sea for fifteen hours before 
being rescued. 

In December, 1917, the Ats- 
troyer Jacob Jones encountered 
a submarine which let fly a 
missile striking the American 
directly amidships, and abreast 
of a fuel oil tank. In eight 
minutes the ship went to the 
bottom. All the boats and 
rafts were launched that time 
would permit, but the ship 
went down so speedily that 
the commanding oflRcer ran 
along the decks ordering the 
men to leap overboard and 
trust to being picked up by the 
boats already in the water. 
Two men were picked up by 
the submarine which came to 



the surface long enough to gaze on the de- 
struction it had wrought, then disappeared 
with its captives. 

Considering, however, the dependence the 
Germans placed upon submarine warfare 
and the extent to which they had developed 
this branch of their navy the United States 
suffered but little from submarine attack. Not 




© Underwood & Underwood 

The fire room of a battleship where some of the hardest and most patriotic work 
was done during the war 



246 



UNITED ST A T E S IN THE GREAT W A R 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



247 




© American Press Association 

Lieut. Bruce Richardson Ware, Jr., in charge of the gun crew on the Mongolia which sank a German submarine on April 19, 1917 



one American troopship on the way to France 
was torpedoed, and but three in all were 
lost from this cause — the Antilles, President 
Lincoln, and Covington, all of which were sunk 
on the return voyage. Besides the Alcedo 
and Jacob Jones the only fighting ships lost 
were the cruiser San Diego, sunk by a mine 
off Fire Island, and the coast 
guard cutter Tampa which 
was lost with all on board, in 
officers and men, in Bristol 
Channel. The collier Cyclops 
vanished utterly from the face 
of the waters and nothing 
has ever been learned of its 
fate. 

The actual losses to our 
navy were most gratifyingly 
small when the number of our 
men engaged in naval service 
is considered. We had in 
commission not less than 2,ochd 
craft of every sort, while naval 
aircraft plied the skies, and 
marines and shore parties of 
blue-jackets were engaged in 
the most hotly fought battles 
of the European fronts. The 
navy's i4-inch guns were 



dragged from the coast to the Argonne, and 
with their seamen crews took part in the 
victorious battles there. As for what the 
Marines did that has already been told in the 
story of the battles of Belleau Wood, Chateau- 
Thierry, and the Argonne. 

When the declaration of war upon Germany 




A torpedo just starting on its deadly errand 



248 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



249 




Vincent Astor's yacht, the Norma, armed and used to guard transports while crossing the Atlantic 



almost every college was a school for naval 
instruction, and at countless places were 
schools for certain specialized features of 
naval service. Just north of Chicago the 
Great Lakes Training Station that had been 
estabhshed for some years with a capacity 



was signed the total personnel of the navy 
amounted to 65,777 men; the day the 
armistice was signed it had increased to 
497,000 men and women, for in the clerical 
work ashore women were enlisted with the 
grade of yeowomen and served efficiently 
thoughout the war. A patri- 
otic feature of the navy's rapid 
growth was the rapid increase 
in the number of Naval 
Volunteers, the organization 
which in war time supplanted 
the old Naval Militia. At the 
time the war ended more than 
290,000 young men had volun- 
tarily offered themselves for 
this service. 

To train this enormous body 
of men, to supply properly 
equipped officers, and to furnish 
seamen as they were needed 
notonlyfor the navy but for the 
great merchant marine which 
we were determined to estab- 
lish, was a task of no small 
proportions. The educational 
section of the Navy Depart- 
ment became one of the great 

features of American life. In The Henky, torpedo boat destroyer, just before she made her hnc war record 




:50 



I'NMTED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




) Committee on Public Information 

View from the mast-head of an American transport unloading her cargo at American built docks in France 

for training 6,000 seamen was swiftly en- panics, their athletic teams and their social 
larged so as to take care of 40,000 — and the organizations. To many boys it furnished the 
whole 40,000 were there with considerable joy in youth which college life gives to those 
pressure for 
places for more. 
Another sta- 
tion of like 
capacity was 
at Pelham Bay 
on the northern 
border of 
GreaterNew 
York. In all 
these schools 
the utmost care 
was given to 
the enrolled 
men. Their 
health, their 
comfort and 
their morals 
were all watch- 
ed over with 
the utmost 
solicitude, and 
their pleasures 
were not neg- 
lected. They 
had their own 
bands and 

tneatncal com- This shell fired by the Germans at this British torpedo boat didn't hit anything except the ocean 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



251 




Lookout in crow's nest of the skeleton mast of a 
U. S. cruiser anxiously scanning the waters during 
the war 

who are fortunate enough to enjoy 
it. Not all, perhaps only a small 
fraction of those who had this training, 
saw actual service in the navy. How 
many will make their way into the 
merchant marine it is yet too early 
to say. But it is certain that no youth 
who was fortunate enough to put 
in the prescribed time at one of the 
training camps failed to gain there 
something of value in the formation 
of character and a serviceable train- 
ing for whatever walk in life he might 
later elect. 

The navy also had its aviation 
service. According to the report of 
the Secretary for 191 8 there were 
incorporated in this branch of the 
service 828 naval aviators, while 
about 2,052 student officers, and 400 
ground officers with about 12,000 
enlisted mechanics were under train- 
ing at the various aviation camps. 
Neither in the flying service attached 
to the navy nor in that department 
of the army did the United States 
win much glory for itself. The delay 
in the construction of machines neces- 
sarily led to delay in the training of 
aviators. In the hotly contested bat- 
tles of St. Mihiel and the Argonne our 
troops were obliged to rely upon 



foreign aviators, or at best 
upon Americans flying foreign 
machmes for this vital service 
to a modern army. It may, 
perhaps be as well to dismiss 
here the whole matter of 
American aviation during the 
war. Although the airplane 
is distinctly an American in- 
vention, owing its inception to 
the vision of Professor Langley, 
of the Smithsonian Institution 
and its perfection to the 
Wright Brothers, our nation 
lagged far behind in the 
construction of successful war 
flyers. Our appropriations for 
this purpose were prodigious, 
our preUminary boasting of 
what we intended to do was 




The Z-^, one of the iK-ucM .uul hiom iKiwrifnl subiii.iniK- 
Navy, going at full speed 



n rlR- U. S. 



252 UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



2i;3 




An American cruiser helping the British Navy in its tireless patrol of the North Sea during the war 




An American battleship in the act of firing an enormous torpedo 



254 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



2SS 




© Brown 8i Dawson 

Firing a tinirteen-inch disappearing gun at one of our coast fortifications. You will note the gunners are protecting their ear 

drums against the fearful concussion 



lauseating, our actual accomplishment was 
:ontemptible. Earlier in the war the very 
lower of our youth had formed the Lafayette 
i^scadrille to fight in the air for France. 
A^hen the United States came into the war 
;very possible obstacle was put in the way of 
uch of these gallant youths as still lived 
ind desired to enter the service of their 
iwn country. In the greater work of sup- 
)lying the necessary machines the country 



failed abjectly. To some extent this was 
probably due to the failure to create a single 
responsible head for the aviation service. . It 
was divided between the army and navy de- 
partments and neither Secretary was willing 
to sacrifice his share of the power to the crea- 
tion of an absolutely new department. As 
a result the war ended with the achievements 
of the United States in the air trivial, while 
about the expenditure of hundreds of millions 




19^ 



Nets protecting an important harbor ijn the New England coast during the war 



2s6 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




The fourteen-inch guns un the Jn:Mna. Some naval guns such as the 

the Argonne 



were landed in France and used with great effect in 



of dollars for no perceptible results there huno; 
an atmosphere of scandal which had not been 
cleared away when the Germans had been 
cleared out of France. 

But to recur to the navy: 

The greatest fact of the war was the marvel- 
ous increase in the size of the fleet. When 
war was declared the United States had 197 
ships in commission; in December, 1918, there 
were 2,003. Many of these were of course 
converted merchantmen, for modern men-of- 
war are not built in a few weeks — a fact which 
it is hoped Congress will remember hereafter. 
But 3'ards all over the United States were 
busy building destroyers, the type of ship 
which it was evident would be most service- 
able in this war. Ninety-three ships of this 
class and 29 submarines were launched in 
1918. The destroyers were used not only on 
patrol work but in convoying troopships and 
other craft necessary to the maintenance of 
our armies in Europe. Not onl\' did we carry 
2,000,000 men across the ocean to fight for 
democrac}' but we had to maintain a steady 
procession of ships over and back carrying 
the huge quantities of provisions and am- 
munition needed to maintain them in the fieJd 
of action. Not all of this work was done by 
United States ships of course. A little more 
than half of our army was transported under 
the British flag. But the convoying ships 



were almost all American cruisers and des- 
troyers. 

In supreme command of our American 
naval forces in European waters was Ad- 
miral Sims, while Rear Admiral Rodman 
commanded the battleships serving with the 
British Fleet, Vice Admiral Wilson the naval 
forces in France and other rear admirals were 
in command of minor operations. 

Commanding a battleship squadron with 
an enemy who persistently avoids battle is 
a task which may well grate on the nerves of 
a nav}^ sailor. But Admiral Rodman's report 
of the operations of his fleet makes it clear 
that if there was a lack of the perils of battle 
there was a plethora of hardships and of ner- 
vous strain. 

"There was no liberty or leave worth men- 
tioning; no one allowed away from the ships 
after dark, nor for a period longer than four 
hours and then only in the immediate vicinity 
of the ship, in signal or telephonic communica- 
tion subject to recall." 

If there was no great battle there was ever 
present danger. 

In our operations in the North Sea we were frequently 
attacked by submarines and our battleships had numer- 
ous escapes often only by prompt and skilful handling. 
On one occasion a submarine rammed the flagship 
Ne'M York, dented the bottom and demolished the 
starboard propeller. But there is every reason to 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



257 




The great collier Cyclops which was lost at sea during the war 




A mine layer tied up to the dock waiting to take on a load of the mines lying on the deck 



258 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




Recruits who have just arrived at the Navai Training Station at Newport, R. I. 




The same recruits one hour after their arrival 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



259 



3;^ 



\^^w 




Recruits standing at attL-ntmn in squad torrnatKin on their second day at tile Xewpurt Naval irainrm St 




Recruits formed in a company square. "This formation is used particularly in quelling riots or civil disturbances of any kind 



26o 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



believe that the blows from the propeller sank the 
submarine. En route to dry dock, and to make repairs 
and instal a new propeller three torpedoes in rapid 
succession were fired at her by hostile submarines, but 
again she avoided them by rapid clever manaeuvrmg; 
and escaped. Once when guarding or supporting a 
convoy of thirty or forty vessels on the coast of Norway 
in midwinter a bunch of hostile "subs" fired si,\ tor- 
pedoes at us. Again only our vigilance and instantane- 
ous mancEUvring saved us, but by a very close margin. 

Some idea of the hardships to which the 
men of the fleet were exposed may be derived 
from this paragraph from Admiral Rodman's 
statement: 

It would be superfluous to go into the details of our 



lance of the whole fleet to put to sea on all but instant 
notice. 

One branch of the United States Navy, 
however, saw plenty of fighting ashore while 
the bluejackets afloat were eating out their 
hearts in vam waitmg for the enemy to offer 
battle. This force was the United States 
Marine Corps, an ancient branch of the ser- 
vice, members of which like to recall that 
historically it existed even before the Navy 
Department was organized. In an earlier 
chapter the work of the Marines in France has 
been described. Some facts drawn from the 
report of the Secretary of the Navy will be 




IN. G. Mo 
he crew ot d hvt-iiich gun on tlic Flagship Pinnsyhania rehearsing for their hoped-for shot at the German fleet 



operations in the North Sea, or to mention the rigorous 
climate, when the latitude is north of Sitka, in Alaska, 
or about equal to that of Petrograd, in Russia; or the 
terrific weather, the cold, sleet, snow, ice and heavy 
seas; the arduous and dangerous navigation, the con- 
tinuous cruising in close formation at high speed, with- 
out lights, where the winter nights lasted eighteen 
hours, or the dangers of mine fields — our own, some- 
times, as well as those of the enemy — or the repeated 
attacks of hostile submarines on our battleships, before 
mentioned, and the never ending readiness and vigi- 



of interest as showing further how great a part 
this corps d'elite played in the brief participa- 
tion of the United States in the World War. 
The Marines were not a large body. Only 
8,000 of them took part in the battles in 
France and of that 8,000 there were killed 69 
officers and 1,531 enlisted men, while 78 of- 
ficers and 2,435 "^^^ were wounded badly 
enough to have their hurts reported by cable. 
A casualty list aggregating nearly fifty per 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



261 



cent, of the men engaged is something seldom 
seen in war and speaks volumes for the fight- 
ing character of the Marines, whom their 
enemies came to call "devildogs" in recogni- 
tion of their daring. 

It is not usual for the head of a great execu- 
tive department of the government to set 
forth in his annual report anything except 
the most matter-of-fact account of the work 
done by those under his authority, but Secre- 
tary of the Navy Josephus Daniels honored 
the Marine Corps by a graphic and stirring 



Sergeant in command; but the attack did not falter. 
At 9:45 o'clock that night Bouresches was taken by- 
Lieutenant James F. Robertson and twenty-odd men 
of his platoon; these soon were joined by two reinforcing 
platoons. Then came the enemy counterattacks, but 
the Marines held. 

In Belleau Wood the fighting had been literally 
from tree to tree, stronghold to stronghold; and it was 
a fight which must last for weeks before its accomplish- 
ment in victory. Belleau Wood was a jungle, its 
every rocky formation containing a German machine- 
gun nest, almost impossible to reach by artillery ot 
grenade fire. There was only one way to wipe out 




J liti 



^iiiiiiiTfe.feii»*ai&- 



American naval aviators learning their dangerous trade on Lake Michigan 



account of its service, and we think, honored 
himself by abandoning in such a cause the 
traditional official restraint to give proper 
expression to the admiration the work that 
these soldiers of the sea aroused. A short 
quotation must suffice here: 

The Marines fought strictly according to American 
methods — a rush, a halt, a rush again, in four-wave 
formation, the rear waves taking over the work of those 
who had fallen before them, passing over the bodies 
of their dead comrades and plunging ahead, until they, 
too, should be torn to bits. But behind those waves 
were more waves, and the attack went on. 

"Men fell like flies," the expression is that of an oiEcer 
writing from the field. Companies that had entered 
the battle 250 strong dwindled to 50 and 60, with a 



these nests — by the bayonet. And by this method 
were they wiped out, for United States Marines, bare 
chested, shouting their battle cry of "E-e-e-e-e 
y-a-a-h-h-h yip!" charged straight into the murderous 
fire from those guns, and won! 

Out of the number that charged, in more than one 
instance, only one would reach the stronghold. There, 
with his bayonet as his only weapon, he would either 
kill or capture the defenders of the nest, and then 
swinging the gun about in its position, turn it against 
the remaining German positions in the forest. Such 
was the character of the fighting in Belleau Wood; 
fighting which continued until July 6, when after a 
short relief the invincible Americans finally were taken 
back to the rest billet for recuperation. 

The time came when the great gray ships 
that had lurked so long behind the stronghold 



262 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



263 




Admiral Meurer of the German Na 



) Underwood & Unde 

is here stepping on board Admiral Sir David Beatty's flagship to arrange the terms of 
the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet 



of Heligoland, or in the ramparted fastnesses 
of Kiel or Wilhelmshaven were to come out, 
without flags, stripped of ammunition and 
with their great guns turned inward to make 
abject surrender to the navies of the trium- 
phant allies. They were given up without a 
fight, and to more than one of the officers who 
received the surrender that seemed worse 
than defeat itself. Defeat on land had forced 
upon the Germans this surrender by sea. 
But if to the tars of our navy it seemed that 
they were reaping the glory won by soldiers 
ashore let it be remembered that among those 
soldiers,'the most timely in their victories were 
the amphibious men of the Marine Corps. 

The surrender of the German fleet was pro- 
vided for in the terms of the armistice dic- 
tated by General Foch. Much has been 
written of it, for this abject surrender of a 
powerful fleet unscarred by battle was both 
pathetic and picturesque. But perhaps best 
of all men to judge its significance was 
Admiral Hugh Rodman, who was present as 
commander of the American battleship fleet. 
With the quotation of a part of his descrip- 
tion of the scene this brief study of the part 
of the United States navy in the World War 
may well be ended: 

And so, after four years of war for the Grand Fleet, 
and after we had been a part of it for the last year, 



there came the debacle, the last scene of the great 
drama. Not as we had all expected, as the successful 
termination of a great sea battle, but as an ignominious 
surrender without firing a gun. 

Surely no more complete victory was ever won, nor 
a more disgraceful and humiliating end could have come 
to a powerful and much-vaunted fleet as that which 
came to the German High Seas Fleet. Let me try 
to describe it to you. 

The Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet de- 
manded and received what actually amounted to an 
unconditional surrender of the whole German navy. 
Under his orders, the enemy's ships were disarmed, 
ammunition landed, torpedo war heads sent ashore, 
breech blocks and fire-control instruments removed 
and every offensive utility rendered innocuous. 

Then with reduced crews, under the command of a 
German Admiral, in one long column, the heavy battle- 
ships leading, the Hun fleet sailed for a designated 
rendezvous, to arrive at a specified time just outside 
of the Firth of Forth in Scotland, where the Grand 
Fleet lay at anchor. 

Before daylight the Grand Fleet was under way and 
proceeded to sea, heading east, in two long columns, 
six miles apart, our American battleship force being in 
the middle of the northern line. A light British cruiser 
was directed to meet the Germans who were heading 
west, and conduct them in between our two columns. 

Here let me diverge for a moment and recall to the 
minds of any of you who have been in China or the 
Philippines the viciousness and antipathy which the 
domesticated carabao has for a white man. How 
ready they are to attack, while any native child can, 
with perfect safety and impunity, go up to the most 







-Js^ 



"''-iiHiii 




Distinguished Service Cross 
Authorized in 1918 

The Philippine Congressional Medal 



Courtesy oj the- .hnerican Numismalic Society ■ 

The Distinguished Service Medal 

Authorized in 1918 

The Naval Medal of Honor (centre) The West Indian Naval Campaign Medal 
Authorized in i86t 



The Congessional Medal of Honor 
Authorized in 1862 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



265 




©UiiH.niooil t. Under. 

On board the battleship New York at the time of the surrender ot the German High Seas Fleet. King George does not seem 
depressed by the event, Left to right: Admiral Sir David Beatty, Admiral Rodman, King George, the Prince of Wales-, and 
Admiral Sims 



266 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




268 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




The Kaiser reviewing his fleet at Kiel. This was when he still thought that "Germany's future lies upon the sea" 



savage of them, take them by the nose and lead them 
where he pleases. 

And so I was reminded of this when a little British 
cruiser rounded-to ahead of the much vaunted German 
High Seas Fleet and hoisted the signal, 'Follow me,' 
and led them down between our columns, where our 
battle flags were mastheaded, turrets trained toward 
the enemy, crews at battle stations, and all in readiness 
for any act of treachery that might be attempted. 

At a prearranged signal our forces swung symmet- 
rically through i8o degrees, and still paralleling the 
enveloped Germans, conducted them into a designated 
anchorage in the entrance of the Firth of Forth. Then 
came a signal from the Commander-in-Chief to the 
surrendered fleet: "At sundown lower your colors and 
do not hoist them again without permission. Surely 
no greater humiliation could have befallen them after 
their frequent and taunting boasts and threats. 

There is little else to be told. After an inspection 



by British and American officers to gain assurance that 
the ships were disarmed, they were sent in groups, 
under guard, to Scapa Flow, in the cold, dreary, bleak, 
God-forsaken harbor in the Orkneys, where the Grand 
Fleet had spent many a dreary month and year, waiting 
like ferocious dogs in leash, watching and waiting, to 
pounce on the German Fleet should the opportunity 
ever occur. 

Here the Germans now lie at anchor, in long .mes, 
helpless, innocuous, harmless; their sting and bite 
removed, their national colors lowered for good and 
all as a token of submission to their masters. Corralled 
like wild and cruel beasts that have been hobbled 
and emasculated, guarded by a single division of 
battleships. 

Our mission has been successfully accomp.ished; 
the German Fleet is a thing of the past; the seas are 
safe and free to our own and our Allies' ships. The 
value of sea power could have no better demonstration. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE ARMISTICE EXTENT OF THE GERMAN DEFEAT TERMS OF SURRENDER 

WERE THE ALLIES TOO LENIENT? THE ADVANCE INTO GERMANY OUR 

TROOPS AT COBLENZ AND TREVES TEMPER OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE THE 

MEASURE OF THE KAISER's CRIME THE PEACE CONFERENCE PRESIDENT 

WILSON AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS LOSSES OF THE WORLD IN MEN AND 

MONEY CHRONOLOGY 



IMMEDIATELY 
after the conclu- 
sionof the armis- 
tice began the 
work of carrying out 
its provisions. First 
of these was the evacu- 
ation by the enemy 
of those parts of 
France and Belgium 
in which his forces 
had been estabhshed. 
This was in fact the 
mere continuation of 
the general retreat 
which was in progress 
when the armistice 
silenced the thunders 
of our pursuing guns. 
But while the Huns 
would have been 
driven out, even had 
they not sued for 
peace, it is certain 
that their retirement in the face of a pursu- 
ing enemy would have been accompanied by 
those methods of devastation of territory, 
and barbarous oppression of the people which 
the Germans had shown themselves so well 
able to practice. 

From this the armistice saved the portions 
of aUied territory still in enemy hands. To 
many Americans, and to even more French 
and British, that capitulation seemed pre- 
mature and its terms too mild to be applied 
to a piratical and savage foe. But as yet 
the world does not know to what extent it 
was hastened by apprehension lest the 
Germans, retreating under fire, should inflict 
upon the great Belgian cities held by them — 
Ghent, Bruges and Brussels — the same sort 
of devastation which had obliterated St. 




Quentin and Ypres from the face of the 
earth, and reduced Rheims and other French 
towns to masses of rums. As it was, while 
the terms of the armistice prohibited further 
destruction, the retreating Huns robbed 
without restra,int the people of every com- 
munity that had been cursed by their pres- 
ence. Never in the history of warfare in the 
last three hundred years at least, has the 
spoliation of conquered peoples been so re- 
duced to an exact science as by the German 
exponents of Kultur. We have to go back 
centuries for any adequate parallel. 

When Alaric, first of the Huns whose deeds 
have been outdone by the HohenzoUerns, 
stood at the gates of Rome haughtily dic- 
tating to its terrified envoys the terms on 
which he would spare the Imperial City from 
complete destruction, they cried out in futile 
protest: 

"If such. Oh King, are your demands 
what do you purpose to leave us ? " 

"Your lives," responded the Fifth Century 
prototype of Hindenburg. 

Bismarck was a true descendant of the 
Huns and Vandals that almost destroyed 
European civilization fifteen centuries ago. 
Asked what he intended to concede to the 
French who were held at German mercy in 
1 87 1 he responded: 

"We will leave the French people only 
their eyes to weep with." 

Doubtless it was apprehension of the fur- 
ther barbarities that the Germans might 
perpetrate upon the people of the districts 
they still occupied that impelled the Allies 
to grant the enemy some respite from the 
annihilation which it was within their power 
to inflict. If a necessary concession it was 
still an unfortunate one. For it permitted 
the Germans to withdraw within their own 
territory armies aggregating at least 3,000,000 



269 



270 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



men winch hatl not sustained any crushing 
defeat, and were not even effectively dis- 
armed. The terms of the armistice, indeed, 
provided that there should be surrendered to 
the Allies 5,000 guns (2,500 heavy, and 2,500 
field), 25,000 machine guns, 3,000 minen- 
werfer, and 1,700 airplanes. But while 
this would cripple the enemy it by no means 
wholly disarmed him. Possibly in the hope 
that the returning army would be a force for 
the maintenance of law and order against 
threatened revolutionary terror in Germany, 
the soldiers were not deprived of their per- 
sonal arms — rifles, swords or pistols. The 
defeated armies were thus spared the igno- 



The then Chancellor of State, Franz 
Ebert, addressing them, said in part: 

"^'our deeds and sacrifices are unexampled. No 
enemy overcame you. Only when the preponderance 
of our opponents in men and material grew ever heavier 
did we abandon the struggle. 

You endured indescribable sufferings, accomplished 
incomparable deeds, and gave, year after year, proofs 
ot your unshakable courage. You protected the home- 
land from invasion, sheltered your wives, children, 
and parents from flames and slaughter and preserved 
the nation's workshops and fields from devastation. 

With deepest emotion the homeland thanks you. 
^'ou can return with heads erect. Never have men 
done or suffered more than vou. 




ng \ ictor Immaniiel ot Italy and some of Italy's victorious soldiers celebrating victory around the statue of Dante 



miny of returning home stripped of all insignia 
of the soldier, without arms and reduced to 
the quahty of a mere mob. 

The wisdom of this clemency is made 
doubtful by the deliberate misconstruction 
of the situation in Germany by the press and 
by official spokesmen of the government. 
The home coming soldiers entered Berlin 
like conquerors. Through the Brandenburg 
Gate and down Unter den Linden they 
marched, arms at shoulder and field guns in 
train, to the Palace whence the Kaiser had 
been ousted but from the galleries of which 
representatives of the government of the 
moment addressed to them words of compli- 
ment and praise. 



The correspondent of a neutral paper com- 
menting upon the scene wrote, "Berlin was 
once more a military town, full of enthusiasm 
for the soldiers and their deeds. There was 
nothing in the entry to call to mind the na- 
tional defeat." 

These words are written just as the Peace 
Conference is about to begin its sessions at 
Versailles. More than two months have 
passed since in the meeting at Senlis the rep- 
resentatives of Germany admitted defeat, 
and begged for a cessation of the war. French, 
American, British, and Belgian armies are 
in occupation of German cities and the 
German frontier has been moved back to the 
Rhine. But not one voice in Germany — if 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




) International Film Service, Inc. " 

The spontaneous victory celebration after signing of the armistice on Fifth Avenue, New York — known as the Avenue of the 
Allies. Tons of paper were thrown from the windows by the excited celebrators 















* ., ■<■ 






«J**»--v' 



*,-W 



© International Filn 

The victory celebration in Chicago where the crowds were even denser than in New York 



272 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



273 



we except that of a single rather sensational 
journalist — has been raised to express regret 
for even the most frightful atrocities com- 
mitted by the German troops or in any plea 
for forgiveness for the perpetration of the 
greatest crime known to history. The atti- 
tude of the German nation toward those 
upon whom it so long worked 
its criminal will is haughty 
and unsubdued. It is only 
to be expected that some new 
Treitschke will presently arise 
to preach anew the gospel of 
war and devastation, and point 
out that by their excesses in 
France and Belgium the Ger- 
man armies instilled in the 
minds of their enemies such 
dread of what they might yet 
do as to snatch honorable 
terms of surrender from the 
jaws of ignoble defeat. Only 
by the exactions which the 
Peace Conference may lay up- 
on the Teuton nations can 
they be made to feel their re- 
sponsibility and to do penance 
for it. 

Under the terms of the ar- 
mistice the armies of the Allies 
followed the Germans as they 
retreated from France, and in- 
to the German territory that 
was set aside for Allied occu- 
pation. This territory in- 
cluded all of Germany west of 
the Rhine, and for a distance 
of ten kilometers east of it, 
together with the cities of 
Cologne, Mayence, and Cob- 
lenz, with a semi-circular ex- 
panse of territory, thirty kilo- 
meters wide, back of each. All 
of Belgium and France was of 
course to be] evacuated, and 
the Belgian troops, long barred 
from their country, pressed close upon the 
heels of the retreating host so that on the 
22nd of November King Albert rode in tri- 
umph into Brussels whence he had been 
driven into exile four years before. 

Our American troops first entered Germany 
along the Sauer and Moselle rivers, occupying 
first the city of Treves. Coblenz, one of the 
chief bridgeheads along the line was occupied 
by. them on the 9th of December, A corres- 



pondent, Mr. Edwin L. James accompanied 
the army of occupation and from his account 
of the reception of our troops in these two 
German cities some quotations may well be 
made: 

It was just five-thirty o'clock this morning, exactly 
one month after they broke through the German line, 




Looking east on Locust Street from 8th Street, St Louis, Mo. A scene in the 
spontaneous victory celebration after the signing of the armistice. Not only in 
St. Louis but all over the country the people expressed their joy by throwing enor- 
mous quantities of paper out of the windows 



north of Verdun and made the now famous dash toward 
Sedan, that the Americans quit hospitable Luxembourg 
for their trek into what the late and unlamented ex- 
Kaiser used to call the sacred soil of the Fatherland. 

To one watching those business-like lads cross the 
international bridge of Wasserbillig in the sickly light 
of a cloudy dawn they seemed to march just as they 
did not so long ago, when the same lads were going 
into the hell which lasted five weeks over in the Meuse 
sector. Who could have told them a month ago that 
to-day they would be marching footfree into the land 



274 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



275 




A night scene in the Far East in celebration of the signing of the armistice 



of the enemy? But into Germany they marched, 
their eyes straight ahead, their rifles held tight, and 
their cartridge clips filled. There was nothing of the 
popular conception of a conquering army about them. 
They were solemn-faced lads, business-like and quiet, 
and, above all, ready for whatever was to come. 

One was impressed by the general prosperous and 
sleek appearance of the whole city. The shop windows 
were well filled with all sorts of merchandise; the meat 
shops were far from empty. There was that air that 
one used to see about captured Ger- 
riian officers — thesame sullen apathy, 
the same insolent and disdainful 
manner. To one who smiled, many 
frowned; but most simply stood there 
and stared. We went out on the 
bridge over the beautiful Moselle to 
await the coming of the Americans. 

It was just at I o'clock, German 
time, that Colonel Hunt appeared, 
leading the 6th Infantry of the 5th 
Division, which is to be the perma- 
nent garrison of the city during our 
occupation. Behind him came ft 
brass band, formed by doughboys, 
who were a full regiment strong, 
and a company of machine guns. 
They were neat and nifty, these 
victorious young Americans, as they 
marched so solemnly into this Hun 
city. 

It was so different from the entry 
into French and Belgian towns, 
where the smiles of little children 
and blessings and joyful tears of 
grown folks had greeted us. Here 



was hostility lurking beneath the smirking surface 
hospitality of the Hun. I turned and marched with 
the head of the column into the ancient city, the Ger- 
man name of which is Trier. 

No American was there but loved that bandmaster. 
He must have come from south of the Mason and Dixon 
Line, for as Colonel Hunt set foot into the city the 
strains of "Dixie" broke out. The tune quickened the 
heartbeats and footsteps of the Americans, but of all 
those thousands of Germans who lined our path none 




An American shell stopped the flight of this German gun and crew, killing botli 
the members of the crew and the horses 



276 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




German soldiers in the town of Hunigen during tlieir evacuation of Alsace and retreat nito Germany 



showed the least feeHng except the little children, who 
smiled at the soldiers, as all children will. 

The crowd grew denser and denser as we reached 
the square. Here a band broke into "Suwanee River," 
and just then the standard bearer gave the Stars and 
Stripes an extra whirl, and the column passed on by the 
ancient Porta Nigra to their barracks. 

After the triumphal and glorious march through 
France and Belgium and evenLuxembourgtheappalling 
silence almost frightened one. There was gloom 
everywhere. Even the German flags 
and arches which had welcomed the 
returning boche .soldiers had been put 
away, and nothing remained undone 
to make the ceremony more sombre. 

One was deeply impressed by the 
quiet dignity of the American soldiers 
to-day. These lads whistled and 
joked and played mouth-organs while 
going into battle, but marching 
through Germany to-day there 
wasn't a smile on their faces or a 
joke on their lips. They were dead 
serious. 



At Coblenz the reception 
was very different, and the 
description given by Mr. 
James of the gayety and seem- 
ing prosperity of the city con- 
trasts curiously with the pleas 
that even then were being 
made by German spokesmen 
that the Allies should feed 
their people lest they starve: 



The reception of the Americans here was very differ- 
ent from that at Treves. There sullen silence greeted 
us everywhere. Here smiling delegations met us; 
pretty girls waved hands and handkerchiefs. 

The river promenade was crowded with the curious, 
who were in remarkably good humor. Every one 
seems anxious to do what can be done for the Americans. 
One walks along the boardwalk here, which, if one did 
not look across the picturesque Rhine, one might 
imagine the Atlantic City promenade, and one rubs 




The triumphal entrance of Marshal Petain and his victorious troops into Metz 
on the Rhine from whose great fortress the Germans had threatened the French 
for forty-eight years 



278 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




© Committee on Public Information 
The 28th Infantry, ist Division of the American Army of Occupation, marching down the valley of the Moselle to the Rhine. 
Whatever their motives, the people along the way are far from hostile 



one's eyes to make one's self believe that this is a vah- 
quished nation. 

A German officer took me for a walk late in the after- 
noon. Thousands of well-dressed men and handsomely 
gowned women thronged the boulevard along the Rhine, 
the crowd in front of the magnificent Coblenzerhof 
reminding one of a Fifth Avenue holiday parade. The 
shop windows were filled with luxuries of every descrip- 




tion. I bought excellent cigars and Waldorf-Astoria 
cigarettes. 

My German guide took me into the city's finest 
tearoom. Here was matched the tearoom in Sherry's 
any December afternoon. Silks and satins and furs 
vs'ere on all sides. The tearoom itself was ornate and 
luxurious in its appointments. 

Last night the cafes were filled with merrymakers 
up to II o'clock, and the theatres 
were running full blast. The gayety 
was as if Germany had won and 
not lost the war. The world knovrs 
Coblenz as one of the beautiful cities 
of Europe, and certainly the German 
defeat has dimmed none of its glory. 
Blooming prosperity is every^vhere 
apparent, and if there is any scarcity 
of food I have not been able to find 
it. The famous old Monopol Hotel 
and the Coblenzerhof and numerous 
restaurants serve meals that would 
tickle the palate of an epicure. 

At almost any other time one 
would have felt happy to be here; 
but now, seeing Coblenz, one at 
once remembers Rheims. Seeing 
Coblenz sleek and prosperous, one 
feels that Germany is not yet re- 
pentant. 



Col. Milo C. Corey, the first member of the Second American Division to arrive 
in Luxembourg, inquiring his way to Mersch — one of the stopping points of the 
Division on its way to the Rhine 



Repentance, indeed, may 
come later. Germany suffered 
cruelly in men and loss of 
wealth in the war which she 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




The iSth Infantry of the First Division American Army marching across the border hne between France and Lorraine near Metz 



SO causelessly and wickedly provoked. But 
her loss thus far has not exceeded, in the 
case of France indeed has hardly equalled, 
that of her victims though the responsibility 
is all hers. To-day the Peace Congress of 
the AUied nations sits at Versailles to fix 
the measure of that responsibility and to 
determine the method by which the Germans 
shall be forced to pay. 

The former Kaiser, dethroned and fearing 
for his life should he enter 
again his former dominions is 
in exile in Holland, where he 
finds none so poor as to do 
him reverence. The nation he 
wrecked faces ruin. When 
the criminal folly of his mili- 
taristic advisers led him to 
give acquiescence to this war 
Germany was first of the na- 
tions of Continental Europe 
and in a fair way to outdo the 
world. Her military and na- 
val strength, great as they 
were, were the least of her 
glories. To her universities 
flocked stiSldehts from all over 
the world. Her methods of 
municipal government were 
widely applauded and coming 
in for general imitation. Her 
position in apphed science 
was foremost, and her 



manufactures were rapidly eclipsing those 
of Great Britain, that had long been the 
workshop of the world. Her merchant ma- 
rine, under wise government support, had 
become second on the seas, and an army of 
state-aided and state-instructed salesmen 
were invading all markets with German 
made goods. The policy of peaceful pene- 
tration was winning everything for Germany, 
and it was a sorry day for her people when 




An advance guard of the American Aim\ ni ()iiupation 
between France and Germany 



the boundary 



28o 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



281 




An American transport train in Germany, passing throug 



© International Film Service 

Coblenz on the Rhine, on their way to take over the Fort of Coblenz 



their rulers thought they could hasten this 
method of assured conquest by adopting 
the course of international pirates. The 
world arose as a unit against this programme 
and beat Germany to the dust. 

All civilized peoples hope that this war, 
however full it may have been of glory for 
the victors, will be the last. At the Peace 
Conference at Versailles the President of the 
United States appears as the foremost cham- 
pion of a League of Nations that shall hence- 
forward make war impossible. The first 
President ever to leave our shores for Europe 
during his term of office, Mr. Wilson sits as 
the first American ever to take part in a 
European conference for adjudicating the 
results of a war. His position is unique in 



history, as it is in the conference. He is 
there representing a nation which seeks no 
territory or advantage for itself as the fruit 
of the conflict in which it played a tardy but 
determinative part. He represents the great- 
est force for future peace and is looked upon 
by the representatives of all the world as the 
foremost proponent of that form of interna- 
tional organization which alone can avert the 
recurrence of the calamity which has so dark- 
ened the early days of the Twentieth Century. 
How great will be his measure of success it is 
too early yet to tell but surely civilization will 
have missed its greatest opportunity if this 
conference shall adjourn without the formu- 
lation of some agreement among the nations 
that shall make future wars impossible. 



282 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




© International Film Se 

An ;irtillery unit of the American Army of Occupation marching along the Rhine, approaching Coblenz 




© International Film Service 
The First Division of the American Expeditionary Forces crossing the laniutis ulJ pontoon bridge leading into Coblenz, Germany 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



283 



THE COST OF THE WAR IN MEN AND MONEY 



Up to and including February 14, 1919, General 
Pershing had reported the following casualties suffered 
by the United States Expeditionary Force: 



Killed in action .... 30,868 

Died of wounds .... 13,020 

Died of disease .... 19,202 

Died of other causes . . 3,521 

Dead from all causes. . . 66,611 

Missing in action . . . . 11,200 

Wounded 166,607 

M.IRINE CORPS 

Killed 1,562 

Wounded ....... 9,260 

Missing 697 



Very few details are available regarding the distri- 
bution of our casualties amongst the various branches 
of the service or regarding the proportions of officers 
and men. It is known, however, that the U. S. Air 
Service had total casualties of 442 members of its 
commissioned personnel of whom 109 were killed, 103 
wounded, 200 missing, 27 prisoners, and 3 interned 
in neutral countries. To these must be added 159 
who lost their lives while in training. 

Included in the above grand total of losses suffered 
by the United States forces in Europe are also those of 
the various regiments of Marines. These amounted 
in all up to December 23, 1918, to 5,280, of which 192 
[ were officers — 90 killed, loi wounded, i missing — and 
S,o88 non-commissioned officers and privates — 1,908 
killed, 2,792 wounded, 75 prisoners, and 313 missing. 



BRITISH LOSSES TO NOVEMBER 19, 1918 





KILLED 


WOUNDED 


MISSING 


TOTAL 


France 
Dardanelles . 
Mesopotamia 
Egypt ^ . . 
Saloniki . 
East Africa . 
Italy ... . 
Other fronts . 




559,612 
33.522 
31,109 
15.892 
7.615 
9,104 
1,027 
823 


1.833.345 
■78,518 
51. "5 
38,073 
16,876 

7,754 
4.946 
1.515 


326,69s 

7.689 

15.355 

3,888 

2,827 

967 

765 

959 


2,719,652 
119,729 

97,579 

• 57,853 

27,318 

17,825 

6,738 

3,297 


Total . . 


658,704 


2,032,142 


359,14s 


3,049,991 



LOSSES OF THE BRITISH NAVY AND MERCANTILE 
MARINE 





KILLED 


WOUNDED 


MISSING 


TOTAL 


Navy: Officers . 
Men . . 
Mercantile Ma- 
rine (all ranks) 


2,466 
30.895 

14,661 


S05- 
4,378 


237 
985 

3,29s 


3,508 
36,258 

17,956 


Total . . 


48,022 


5,183 


4,517 


57.722 



It will thus be seen that the total losses of all British 
forces on sea and land were: 

Killed 706,726 

Wounded 2,037,325 

Missing ........ 363,662 

Total 3. 107.713 




These men, the M. P.'s of the 42nd or Rainbow Division, are lined up for guard duty alo 

the new Wacht am Rhine 



.lime ncai 



Coblenz. This is 



jS4 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




The former Kaiser and Count Bentinck walking in the garden of Castle Amerongen, where the former has been interned 

by the Government of Holland 



In interpreting these figures it must be understood 
that the term "missing" includes men taken prisoners 
as well as those of whom no trace could be found. On 
the other hand "killed" does not include any except 
those actually fallen in action or who died from wounds. 
It will, therefore, be seen that the total of deaths will 
be considerably larger than 706,726 after those have 
been included who were listed as "missing," but are 
actually dead as well as those who died from sickness, 
and it has been stated on good authority that the total 
of British dead was very close to 1,000,000. 

Regarding the losses suffered by our French allies, 
details are as yet more or less lacking. Official an- 
nouncements give the total of dead up to November 
I, 1918, as 1,071,300, of whom 31,300 were officers 
and 1,040,000 men. There were also 3 14,000 missing — 
3,000 officers and 3 1 1,000 men — and 446,300 prisoners — 
8,300 officers and 438,000 men. Those who died from 
wounds or disease numbered about 330,000, while 
some 800,000 more were wounded, but recovered. The 
grand total for France, therefore, may be reckoned at: 



No figures, not even approximate estimates, are 
available covering the casualties suffered by the civil 
population in those parts of France in which the war 
was fought. The total, however, must have been very 
heavy, considering the brutality with which the Central 
Powers carried on warfare. The same lack of figures 
exists respecting the losses suffered by the civil popula- 
tions of Belgium, Italy, Serbia, Rumania, Austria- 
Hungary, Russia, and of other parts of the world in 
which actual fighting occurred. 

Casualty totals for the Italian forces vary — as 
estimated by various agencies — from 1,500,000 to 
2,800,000. The latter figure is that of an estimate 
made by a Colonel of the Italian Army who distributes 
it as follows: 



Killed in action 

Died of wounds or disease 
Wounded, missing and prisoners 



Total . 



500,000 

300,000 

2,000,000 

2,800,000 



I 



Killed ...... 

Died of wounds or disease 
Missing and prisoners 
Wounded 



1,071,300 
330,000 
760,300 
Soo,ooo 



Total 2,961,600 



Russian war casualties, too, have been estimated 
at widely differing numbers. The latest estimate 
amounted to 9,150,000, of which 1,700,000 were said 
to have been killed, 1,450,000 to have been totally 
disabled, 3,500,000 to have been wounded, and 2,500,000 
to have been taken prisoners. 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



28s 



Other nations, fighting on the side of the Alhes — 
Belgium, Serbia, Rumania, Greece, and Portugal — 
according to estimates lost by death altogether 530,000. 
While the grand total of their dead, wounded, and 
captured is placed at 1,310,000. 

The German casualties up to October 25, 1918, 
are said to have been distributed as follows: 





DEAD 


WOUNDED 


MISSING 


TOTAL 


Prussia and 










small German 










states. 


1,262,060 


2,882,671 


616,139 


4,760,870 


Bavaria. 


150,658 


363,823 


72,115 


586,596 


Saxony . . 


108,017 


252,027 


51.787 


411,831 


Wiirttemberg . 


64,507 


155.654 


16,802 


236,963 


German Navy . 


25,862 


28,968 


15.679 


70,509 


Total . 


1,611,104 


3,683,143 


772,522 


6,066,769 



Of the grand total of 6,066,769 of all casualties 
140,760 were officers — 44,700 dead, 82,460 wounded 
and 13,600 missing — and 5,926,009 non-commissioned 
officers and men. 

Austria-Hungary's losses have been estimated at 
4,000,000 of which 800,000 — including 17,000 officers — 
are said to have been killed. Bulgaria and Turkey 
are believed to have suffered losses amounting to 
1,000,000 each, of which the former lost some 250,000 
and the latter about 300,000 in dead. 

Summarizing all these figures we get the following 
stupendous totals for the cost of the war expressed in 
human lives, as shown in the table below: 

The cost of the war expressed in dollars and cents, 
though, of course, not as tragic in its results as that in 
human lives, is hardly less staggering. 

When the United States went to war in April, 1917, 



KILLED IN ACTION 

— DEAD FROM ALL 

OTHER CAUSES 



Belgium 

France 

Great Britain 

Greece 

Italy .... 

Portugal . 

Roumania . 

Russia 

Serbia 

United States 

All Allies . . 

Austria-Hungary 
Bulgaria . 
Germany 
Turkey . 

Central Powers 

All Belligerents 



150,000 

1,330,000 

706,726 

25,000 

800,000 

4,000 

200,000 

1,700,000 

150,000 

58,478 



800,000 

250,000 

1,611,104 

300,000 



2,961,104 



TOTAL DEAD, 
WOUNDED, CAPTURED 



400,000 
2,961,600 

3. 107.7 1 3 
100,000 

2,800,000 

10,000 

400,000 

9,150,000 
400,000 
264,856 



4,000,000 
1,000,000 
6,066,769 
1,000,000 



GRAND 
TOTAL 



12,066,769 



31,660,938 




Ihe former Crown Prince of Germany in exile on the Island of \\ lurgingen in the Zuyder Zee, Holland. These carriages are 
taking the former Prince and his party to the humble cottage in the village of Osterland where they are interned 



286 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



287 




Being mustered out of the National Army after the signing of the armistice. Every man is tested as to his knowledge of a 
trade or vocation and his physical fitness before he is released 



288 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




The President getting his first glimpse of France from the little despatch boat that took the Presidential party from the 
George Washington to Brest, France, on December 31, 1918 

our public debt was somewhat under $2,500,000,000. plished by the flotation of four Liberty Loans and the 

By November, 1918, when definite figures for the sale of War Savings Stamps. The following figures 

subscriptions to the 4th Liberty Loan became available give some idea of the gradual increase in our public 

it had risen to over $20,000,000,000. This was accom- debt: 



1st Liberty Loan 
2nd Liberty Loan . 
3rd Liberty Loan . 
4th Liberty Loan . 
War Savings Stamps 



Total 



AMOUNT ASKED 



SUBSCRIPTIONS 
RECEIVED 



i52,00O,0OO,0OO 
3,000,000,000 
3,000,000,000 
6,000,000,000 



$3,035,226,850 
4,617,532,300 
4,176,516,850 
6,989,047,300 



$14,000,000,000 $18,695,692,300 $17,730,699,300 54,100,000 



SUBSCRIPTIONS 
ACCEPTED 



$2,000,000,000 

3,808,766,150 

4,176,516,850 

6,989,047,000 

879,000,000 



NUMBER OF 
SUBSCRIBERS 



4,500,000 
9,500,000 
18,300,000 
21,800,000 




President Wilson being welcomed in Paris which beautiful city has been called the capitol of the world 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 289 

The returns from these loans, of course, only formed about ^10,327,000,000 and obligations had been in- 

part of our war chest. To them were added part of curred forthe additionaldisbursementof ^4,426,000,000. 

our regular revenues from customs and taxes and other Out of this, it was expected that as a result of the cessa- 

vast sums procured from special war taxes of many tion of hostilities $2,600,000,000 could be saved; to 

kinds. On the other hand not all of the moneys thus this sum must be added the unexpended and un- 

become available for war expenditures, can be con- obligated balance of $9,528,000,000, making the actual 

sidered pure expenditures. Much of it was invested cost of the army during the war about $12,153,000,000. 

rather than expended. Under this head come large Similar retrenchments in other departments, it was 

amounts used in building ships, in building camps and hoped, would amount to about $4,000,000,000. It 

barracks and guns, in advancing rnoney to our Allies, may, therefore, be said that the total net war expendi- 

railroads, and otherwise helping along temporarily cer- ture of the United States between April 6, 1917, and 

tain undertakings of importance to our war activities. November 1 1,1918, amounted to about $31,000,000,000. 

Total appropriations and authorizations voted by The British Government between August i, 1914, 

Congress during the war amounted to $57,000,000,000. and November 16, 1918, spent $42,097,320,000. Of 

Of this vast sum $10,000,000,000 was set aside for war this $10,789,200,000 was provided by revenue and 

time loans to foreign governments. Up to the end of $31,308,120,000 from loans. 

December, 1918, about 85 per cent, of this amount had Again, as in the case of the United States, allowances 

been used, distributed as follows: must be made for sums loaned by Great Britain to its 

Great Britain ^4,195,000,000 allies and dominions amounting for the same period to 

France 2,445,000,000 some $8,180,000,000. This would make the net war 

^taly 1,210,000,000 expenditure of Great Britain, not allowing for some 

d"i*^'^ 325,000,000 $5,000,000,000 represented by "recoverable" expendi- 

Delgium 213,320,000 ^-" 1 rf 

Greece 39.554>036 tures, about $34,000,000,000. 

Cuba 15,000,000 The public debt of Great Britain on August I, 1914, 

Serbia 12,000,000 ^vas $3,450,600,000. By November 16, 1918, it had 

Rumama. ...... ^'^'^^6 reached $34,763,580,000. Included in this last figure, 

Liberia 5,000,000 ^jt^i j'j > ^ . ' 

Czecho-Slovaks 7,000,000 however, are some temporary engagements amounting 

■ to almost $10,000,000,000 so that for comparison with 

Totsl $8,473,540,702 thg pre-war public debt a present total of about 

Up to October 31, 1918, the army had been voted $25,000,000,000 is more nearly correct. 

$24,281,000,000. Of this there had been disbursed Only estimates are available in regard to the war 




Public Information 
President Wilson with President Poincare leaving the railway station of Boulogne Woods, at the western portals of Paris, 
for a triumphal tour through the French capital to the home of Prince Murat, which is to be during the Peace Conference the 
"White House Overseas" 



290 



UNITED STATES IN THE CJREAT WAR 




&~ 



UNITED 




America's fleet returning from the war and entering tiie mouth of the North River, followed by river craft and dirigibles overhead 



costs incurred by the other belligerents. In the case 
of France these vary from ^28,ooo,occ,ooo to 
$50,000,000,000. One put at $31,600,000,000 and 
announced late in Dec, 1918, by M. de Billy, Deputy 
High Commissioner of the French Republic to the 
United States, therefore, seems the most reliable. Of 
this sum almost $21,000,000,000 was raised by loans, 
over two thirds by internal loans, and the balance by 
loans from Allies and Neutrals. 

Belgium's war expenditure is estimated at 
$4,000,000,000; Italy's (up to June, 1918,) at 
$11,500,000,000. 

In the following compilation ofHcial or semi-official 
figures have been used, though in some cases these did 



not cover expenditures after August i, 1918. However, 
the result, it is believed, will come very near to actual 
figures which will, of course, not become available 
until long after the end of the war. 

These figures, include the expenditures 'for war 
purposes as well as the damages caused by hostile 
occupation, devastation, confiscation, air raids, sub- 
marine sinkings, etc. The latter, of course, are more 
or less hypothetical and in the case of Russia it is 
impossible under the conditions existing at the time 
general hostilities ceased to arrive even at an estimate 
of the damages caused by German-Austrian occupa- 
tion, revolutions, etc. 



WAR EXPENDITURES OF ALL BELLIGERENTS 



Belgium 
France . . 
Great Britain 
Italy 
Japan 
Portugal. 
Rumania 
Russia . 
Serbia 

U. S 

Misc. . . . 

All Allies . . 

Austria-Hungary 
Bulgaria. 
Germany 
Turkey . 

Central Powers 

All Belligerents 



ACTUAL WAR COST 



,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 



$163,736,000,000 



15,000,000,000 
260,000,000 

33,000,000,000 
170,000,000 



1,430,000,000 



$212,166,000,000 



(for devastation; etc.) 
sinkings 

damages CLAIMED 



$1,400,000,000 

20,000,000,000 

2,750,000,000 

150,000,000 



1 50,000,000 

? 

50,000,000 

500,000,000 



$25,000,000,000 



150,000,000 
10,000,000 
50,000,000 
50,000,000 



$260,000,000 



$25,260,000,000 



$5400, 
51,600, 
36,750, 
12,650, 
16, 
280, 

335: 

50,000. 

105: 

31,000, 

600, 



,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 

,ooo,opo 
,oco,ooo 

,000,000 
,000,000 

,000,000 



$188,736,000,000 



$48,690,000,000 



$237,426,000,000 



202 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 





*• i ^ 




.1 


t 


.•» 




r 'f 


m 


-- 




^ • 


.4 


.« 


*f^ 


• t 


f-4!«^^ 


i 


i 


m 




V 

^^^ 


41 










n^ 


^ M 


► -A 


SK • 


Lw. i 


msS^^^^] 


P" 


"^sMI 




f 


mi 


w 


m£. ' 


Ik^r 




r 

;. V, 




. 


^ 




¥ 




F '^^H 


/'v:... 


••' i 


^;' 




i 


^g" ^^^Ew 


> 

*}1 


f 


^»^[^ 


SnV^^'^"- 


^ 


L 







© Linderwood l^: L ndt-rwood 

The Lord Mayor presenting President Wilson with the freedom of the City of London. This is an honor seldom conferred 

upon the chief executives of other nations 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE PART TAKEN BY THE UNITED STATES IN THE WAR 



1917 

February 3. Count von BernstorfF, German Ambassador 
to the United States, given his passports. United States 
Ambassador Gerard recalled from Berlin. 

March 9. President calls extra session of Congress. Orders 

arming of American merchant ships. 
■ March 24. Minister Whitlock ordered by President to leave 
Belgium. 

April 2. President asks Congress to declare state of war 
existing between L'nited States and Germany. 

Jpril 5. State of war declared. 

May 16. Admiral Simms reports his torpedo squadron in 
European waters. 

May 18. Selective draft law enacted. 

June 5. Registration day under draft law; over 10,000,000 
enrolled. 

June 8. General Pershing reaches London. 

June 15. First Liberty Loan subscription closed, subscrip- 
tions exceed ? 1,000,000,000. 

June 19. Landing of first instalment of the American Ex- 
peditionary Force reported from France. 

Jutie 26. United States Marines landed at St. Nazaire. 

July 18. Censorship of letters and telegrams established. 

July 20. First drawing under the draft law. 

July 24. Law enacted appropriating $640,000,000 for avia- 
tion. 

July 27. Second contingent of American troops reaches 
France. 



August 5. National Guard, approximately 300,000 men, 

drafted into service of the United States. 
August 13. Mobilization of new National Army ordered. 
August 28. President Wilson announces rejection of the 

Pope's peace plea. 
October 6. War appropriation of $21,000,000,000 made by 

Congress. 
October 17. Transport Antilles sunk; loss 67 lives. 
October 28. Second Liberty Loan closed; subscriptions, 

$4,617,532,000. 
November 3. First Americans killed in the trenches. 
November 5. Patrol boat Alcedo sunk with loss of 21 men. 
November 22. Third Liberty Loan completed; total 

$4,176,516,850. Number of subscribers 12,000,000. 
December 6. Destroyer Jacob Jones sunk by torpedo; 65 lost. 
December 7. Declaration of war upon Austria-Hungr>ry. 
December 28. United States Government takes over the 

railroads. 

1918 

January 8. President Wilson enumerates his famous "Four- 
teen Points." 

January 26. Wheatless and meatless days prescribed by 
the President. 

February 21. American forces penetrate German lines near 
the Chemin des Dames. 

March I. Americans repulse enemy near Toul. Hand to 
hand fighting with Germans near Chavigny. 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



293 



March 10. Washington reports American troops on four 
sectors; Northwest of Toul; in Champagne; in Alsace near 
Luneville; on the Chemin des Dames in Aisne. 

March 18. Germany announces seizure of all property owned 
by Americans within German boundaries. 

March 22. American artillery in action east of Luneville. 

April 5. Allies, including two regiments of American troops 
land at Vladivostok. 

April 20. Americans in action at Seicheprey. 

April 28. First division Americans take over sector near 
Breteuil. 

May I. Americans repulse attack at Villiers-Bretonneaux. 

May 6. Americans sustain first gas attack in Picardy. 

May 17. Presence of American troops in British war zone 
officially announced. 

May 28. First division captures Cantigny. 

May 31. Successful American raid near Woevre region. 

June 3-6. Americans fighting hard in neighborhood of 
Chateau-Thierry, the Marne and Vieully-la-Potterie. 

June 7. United States Marines drive two-and-one-half miles 
near Chateau-Thierry, storm Torcy and Bouresches, and 
with French take Vieully-la-Potterie. 

Jmie 10. Second Division attacked in Bois de Belleau, ad- 
vancing the line 900 yards on a front of l\ miles, capturing 
300 prisoners, 30 machine guns, 4 trench mortars, and stores 
of small arms, ammunition, and equipment. 

June II. Second Division continued its advance in the Bois 
de Belleau, capturing more prisoners and machine guns and 
two 77 mm. fieldpieces. 

Our aviators e.xecuted their first bombing raid, dropping 
numerous bombs on the railway station at Dommary- 
Baroncourt, northwest of Metz. 

The artillery of the Second Division shelled the enemy 
in their areas. It discovered and dispersed a group of 210 
machine guns in the wood south of Etrepilly. The Second 
Division captured the last of the German positions in the 



Bois de Belleau, taking 50 prisoners, machine guns, and 

trench mortars. 
June 12-17. Americans hold their positions at Chateau- 
Thierry and Thiaucourt, repulsing persistent gas attacks. 
June 20. Americans take German trenches in front of Can- 
tigny and begin an advance on north side of Belleau Wood. 
June 24. Belleau Wood reported clear of all Germans. 
July 2. Americans capture village of Vaux and the Bois de 

la Roche. 

One million Americans reported in France. 
July 4. Australians and Americans capture Hamel. 
July 6. Americans successful at Xivray and in the Vosges. 
July 14. Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt killed in aerial 

battle in the Chateau-Thierry sector. 
July 15. Great German offensive launched. Americans 

repulse whole division on the Marne. 
July 18. French and Americans in counter attack on the 

Marne. 
July 19. U. S. armored cruiser San Diego sunk off Fire Island 

by a mine. 
July 21. Germans driven from Chateau-Thierry. Allies 

steadily advancing. 
July 28. Forty-second Division forces the crossing of the 

Ourcq. 
August 4. Americans take Fismes by assault. The 32nd 

Division, after 8 days of fighting in which it decimated a 

crack division of the Bavarian Guard, entered the town 

in triumph. 
August 10. British and Americans capture Morlancourt and 

Chipilly and drive forward on Bray. 
August 12. Americans, cooperating with the British, reach 

the outsJ;irts of Bray. 
August 18. Americans gain more ground at Frapelle. 
August 19. Americans and French push forward on the north 

bank of the Vesle. 
August 23. Americans repulse violent attacks west of Fismes. 




President and Mrs. Wilson visiting the Coliseum in Rome under the guidance of a famous archaeologist 



294 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 



August 24. Americans win a half-mile front on the Soissons- 

Rheims front west of Fismes. 
August 25. Americans attack Bazoches and resist assault 

on Fismette. 
August 28. Americans advance their lines at Chavigny and 

repulse German attacks at Bazoches. 
August 30. French and American troops north of Soissons 

capture Chavigny and Cuffies and advance their line to the 

west of Crouy. Germans evacuate Bailleul; Americans 

take Juvigny. 
August -^i. Americans make gains eastward in the vicinity 

of Juvigny and the Bois de Beaumont. 
Septc-mbt-r i. Americans forge ahead two miles beyond 

Juvigny; .Americans fight for the first time on Belgian soil 

and take Voormezeeie and nearby strongholds. 
SeptembtT 2. .Americans north of Soissons reach Terny- 

Somy and the Soissons-St. Quentin highway. 
SeptembtT 3. Secretary Lansing announces the recognition 

of the Czecho-Slovafcs as a belligerent nation. 
Septc-mbeT 4. French and American trocps force a passage of 

the ^'esle and occupy Chassemy, Bucy-lc-Long, Branelle, 

Vauxcere, and Blanzy. 
September 6. Germans retreat on a ninety-mile front from 

the posts of the .Americans on the Aisne to the breaches in 

the Hindenburg line before Cambrai. Americans south of 

the .Aisne make progress in the region of Villers-en-Praj eres 

and Revillon. 
September 8. Americans advance northward on the Aisne in 

the vicinity of Vieil .■\rcy. Villers-en-Prayeres, and Revillon. 
September g. Germans throw in new divisions to check Amer- 
ican advance on the St. Gobain massif. 
September 12. First American Army attacks the St. Mihiel 

salient from all sides and advances on a thirty-mile front to a 

depth of five miles, aided by the French; St. Mihiel and 

several towns captured. 
September 13. .Americans wipe out St. Mihiel salient, re- 



ducing the front from forty to twenty miles, capturi 
i^.ooo prisoners, and extending the battleline past Norn 
Jaulny, Xammes, St. Henoit, Hattonville, Hannonville, a 
Herbeuville. 

September 14. .Americans repulse counterattacks in the .. 
Mihiel sector and push on. 

September 15. Americans in St. Mihiel sector advance frci 
two to three miles on a thirty-three-mile front; guns frti 
fortress of Metz in action against them; villages of Norr' 
and Vilcey captured. 

September ij. Americans in Lorraine advance on extrei 
right of the line. Germans burn towns along the Mose 
as .American infantry- advances. 

September 18. Americans build strong front line in Lorrair 
and threaten Metz and the Briey coal fields. 

September 20. American guns fire on Metz. 

September 26. American .Armj- advances on 20-mile fro 
between the Meuse and Aisne rivers; advances 7 miles fii 
day, takes 12 towns and reaches the Kriemhilde line on t) 
28th — U. S. S. Tampa sunk by torpedo; loss 118 men. 

September 29. Americans capture Breulles-sur-Meuse ai 
Romagne. 

September 30. Americans advance slightly in the Argonn 
Bulgaria signs armistice amounting to unconditional su 
render. 

October I. Americans push ahead in the Aisne-Meuse sect 
and repulse German counterattacks in the region of Cierg 
and at Apremont; Germans prepare to evacuate Belgiur 

October 2. Germans begin evacuation of Lille and begin 1 
retreat on a wide front en both sides of La Basste Canal : 
Allies continue enveloping movement north and south ■ 
Lille, Roubai.x, and Turcoing. 

October 5. Americans break the Kriemhilde line and drii 
Germans back to a line two kilometers north of Binarvil 
and Fleville; Americans join French in the Champagne ar 
take part in operations north of Somme-Py. 




Surgeon-General Gorgas and Col. Frank Billings, head of the Division of Physical Reconstruction, inspecting the Walter Reed 

General Hospital, Washington, D. C. 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




t of the organized troops to return cheering from the deck of the Mauretania on lirst seeing the Statue of Liberty 



296 



UNITED STATES IN THE GREAT WAR 




© Undenvood & Underwood 

The Palace of Versailles where the Supreme War Council met and where the armistice terms were agreed upon. Here is where 
King William of Prussia was crowned Emperor of Germany and where his grandson lost his heritage 



Austria-Hungary appeals to President Wilson to effect 
an armistice. 

October 6. German Chancellor proposes peace parley on 
" 14 principles" laid down by Wilson. 

October 7. Americans gain in the Argonne region, taliing 
Chatel-Chehery and commanding positions on the Aire. 

October 8. British, American, and French forces shatter 
twenty miles of Hindenburg defense system from Cambrai 
southward, advancing to an average depth of three miles. 

October g. American aviators active in the Argonne. One 
expedition of great number of planes bombarded many 
towns. 

October 10. Americans clear the Argonne forest. 

October 13. President Wilson notifies Germany that there 
will be no negotiations with an autocratic German govern- 
ment and no armistice while Germany continues its bar- 
barous methods of warfare. 

October 14. Americans advance west of the Meuse. 

October 15. American troops land at Vladivostok. 

October 16. Americans capture Grand Pre. 

October 17. British and American attack on a 9-mile front 
northeast of Bohain and advance two miles. 

October 18. Americans advance north of Romagne and take 
Bantheville. 

October .19. President Wilson refuses Austria-Hungar3''s 
request for armistice on the ground that the Czecho-Slavs 
and Jugoslavs had been recognized as nations and must 
be consulted. Kriemhilde line pierced. Fourth Liberty 
Loan closed. Subscriptions, $6,989,047,000. 

October 21. Germany renews suggestion of armistice. De- 
clares her government has been popularized. 

October 23. Americans on the Verdun front occupy ErieuUes, 
the Bois de Foret, and Bantheville. 



October 24. Americans advance on both sides of the Meuse. 

October 25 Americans clear Belleau Wood of Germans and 
hold Hill 360 in fierce fighting 

Octdber 26. Turkey offers to surrender. 

October 29. Americans shell Conflans region. Austria-Hun- 
gary again appeals for peace. 

October 30. Turkey surrenders. 

November I. First American Army aided by the French 
attacks on a front of over fifteen miles north of Verdun> . 
advancing nearly four miles at some points and freeing a 
dozen towns. 

November 2. Americans break through Freya line on a wide 
front, taking Champigneulle, Buzancy, Fosse, Barricourt, 
Villers-devant-Dun, and Doolcon. 

November 3. Americans continue advance north of Verdun, 
taking several towns, and joining with the French near 
Noirval. Austria-Hungary armiotice signed. 

November 5. Germans retreat on a 75-mile front from the 
Scheldt to the Aisne; Americans cross the Meuse at three 
points below Stenay. Lansing directs Germans to seek 
terms of armistice from Marshal Foch. 

November 6. Germans order retreat across the Meuse on the 
front of the American Army; Mouzon in flames; Vervins, 
Rethel, and other towns won; Sedan fired upon. ■', 

November 7. Americans take Sedan. 

Noveviber 8. French reach the outskirts of Mezieres, advance ; 
beyond the La Capelle-Avesnes Road, and take Thon 
bridgeheads; Americans drive Germans out of last domin-'' 
ating position east of the Meuse. 

November 10. Americans attack on extended front. Take 
Stenaj'. 

November 11. Armistice signed by Foch and German dele- 
gates. Fighting ends at 11 a. m. 



■<^ 



Vili- QQ, 




',j:«S^..' 



